Health mission workers to go on 2-day strike

Health mission workers to go on 2-day strike, seek pay hike

GURUGRAM: The National Health Mission (NHM) workers in Haryana are on war path, announcing a state-wide strike on December 5 and 6 to demand salary hike and sort pay discrepancies.

Haryana has at least 12,500 NHM workers, including 650 workers appointed in Gurgaon. These health workers are employed at primary health centres, urban health centres and ambulance services across the city.
According to the NHM workers, 70% of junior health staff in Gurgaon have been hired on a contractual basis. The health workers said that there were many discrepancies in their salaries. One NHM nurse is paid Rs 10,300, while another is paid over Rs 18,000 for the same job. 
Besides the irregularities, the wages are extremely low. NHM's data entry operator who is professionally qualified is paid Rs 9,900, whereas a security guard is paid Rs 13,500.


"We no longer have faith in the assurances given by the government. We need action now and for that we are willing to take strict steps. We understand that patients will suffer, but we too have been suffering for a long time now," said Hariraj, NHM leader and media secretary, Gurgaon.

The NHM workers have been in talks with the government since 2015 over their demands including standard wages, forming of service rules, permanent jobs, reinstating of contractual workers whose contracts were terminated. Token protests were held across state in April and August this year.

The health workers had also threatened a strike on October 25 and 26 but at the time, the state government had promised that their issues will be resolved.