A section of the government doctors wore demand badges to work on Monday to draw the attention of the State government towards some of their long-pending demands. As a part of the protests, a demonstration will be held in Chennai later this month.
The Federation of Government Doctors Association (FOGDA), in a statement, said the Government Order (GO) 354, which guaranteed pay progression and should have been reviewed in 2017, was still pending. The delay in review has disappointed government doctors, who played a crucial role in COVID-19 management, it said.
Apart from the delay in reviewing the GO, the federation condemned the working hours for staff of the Directorate of Public Health and Preventive Medicine and called it unfair. GO 225 that was issued to extend the working hours were against the labour rules.
They demanded a separate GO to grant increments for postgraduate medical students. With 11,000 doctors enrolled in the Doctors Corpus Fund scheme, the federation demanded that the fund should be immediately granted to beneficiaries.
To draw the attention of the government to their demands, the doctors belonging to FOGDA decided to wear demand badges to work starting from Monday. The federation would hold a demonstration in Chennai on September 25.
