Even as the State government claims that COVID-19 pandemic is almost over, health workers, a majority of them educated and unemployed and got jobs since June 2020, are jobless now as the authorities at the Government Rajaji Hospital have terminated their services since March 31 of this year.
Submitting petitions to the Collector at the weekly grievance redress meeting, G. Ranjith, one of the affected workers, told reporters that they were given jobs in the hospital when the whole world was reeling under the pandemic. Risking lives, hundreds of workers took up the employment.
“We were given work on a temporary basis through a private manpower agency in June 2020. A majority of us were given the task of handling the dead patients, which also we did without hesitation. The government appreciated the services. When lockdown was announced by end-2020, we received our salaries only after a gap of three months,” he said.
In May 2021, the one-year contract with the private manpower agency came to an end. There was suspense due to the change in government at that time. For many months, the workers were not paid salaries. Finally, last week, all the workers were told not to come from April 1, he said.
The Collector should take up the issue with the government and take steps to give jobs by filling vacancies in government hospitals, he added.
