Members of the Association of Contract and Outsourced Workers in the departments of Health and Family Welfare and Medical Education took out a protest rally in Belagavi seeking regularisation, wage hike, among fulfilment of other demands.
The association is affiliated to the Bharatiya Majdoor Sangh, that is backed by the Sangh Parivar. Its members include doctors, nurses and other para medical staff employed on contract and outsourcing basis by the two government departments related to healthcare.
They sat in silence in front of the Deputy Commissioner’s office holding placards and banners that said: “We need wages, not claps’’ and “Corona warriors need justice’’.
They said that they had been engaging in a dialogue with the government seeking higher wages on the basis of equal pay for equal work.
“While regular employees get all benefits, we are left to sustain with a meagre salary. While regular employees get more than ₹ 50,000 monthly salary, we get only around ₹ 10,000. We have submitted a list of 14 demands to the successive governments, but we have only received assurances,” they lamented.
“None of the leaders are willing to solve our problems,” they told journalists.
Their demands include social security based on a comprehensive human resource policy, pension and other benefits, provident fund, higher salaries and better working conditions and regularisation of work based on experience.
They submitted a memorandum to the Deputy Commissioner and then dispersed.
