A day after the services of around 1,400 ‘agitating’ contract employees, working under the National Health Mission (NHM), were terminated after they refused to join work despite repeated pleas, the Punjab Government on Tuesday decided to give them “last chance” considering the massive surge in Covid-19 situation.
Setting May 12 as another deadline, the Government has decided to “reinstate” the NHM employees whoever wanted to re-join their duties by calling off the strike. In a letter issued to all Civil Surgeons of the 22 districts, the state National Health Mission director observed that after the instructions regarding termination of protesting employees were passed, several reports were received from the districts that many employees wanted to return to their duties after calling off their strike.
These protesting employees also gave their joining to the concerned civil surgeons or senior medical officers, added the letter. Taking into account the developments, the Government has decided to give a “last chance” to these protesting employees in the wake of Covid-19 pandemic by allowing them to join their duties by 5 pm on Tuesday. These employees have also been asked to submit an “undertaking”, at the time of their re-joining, that they would not proceed or participate in any strike in the future.
In case any employee participates in the strike on May 12 (Wednesday), the NHM Mission Director has asked the Civil Surgeons to issue their “termination orders” right away.
Notably, the state Health and Family Welfare Minister Balbir Singh Sidhu had appealed to the agitating NHM employees to resume their duties from Monday morning in the larger public interest as the State has been dealing with the second wave of coronavirus.
Citing deadly Covid wave, he pointed that Punjab was combating the pandemic that has witnessed a sharp rise in coronavirus cases and deaths. “Instead of serving the helpless and needy people in this hour of crisis, it is unfortunate that NHM employees have decided to proceed on with the strike,” he had added.
Around 3,000 employees had been on strike for the past one week, demanding regularization of their services. As the State Government had set Monday 10 am as deadline for the protesting NHM employees to join work otherwise their services would be terminated, around 1,600 joined the work while remaining 1,400 did not report to duty. Acting tough, the Government decided to issue their termination orders by Monday evening.
Among 1400 employees, whose services were terminated, include auxiliary nurse midwives (ANMs), nurses, data entry operators, Ayurvedic medical officers, community health officers, multipurpose health workers, among others.
At the same time, the Civil Surgeons had been directed to recruit “voluntary staff” to replace the sacked employees.
A senior government official maintained that because of the strike, the state’s campaign against Covid-19 has been a hit, especially in the state’s rural areas. “As the CHOs, ANMs, multipurpose health workers remained absent from their duties for a week because of their strike, a massive spike in the positivity rate and also the CFR (case fatality rate) has been noticed. This is because they have a very significant role in sampling and contact tracing of suspected patients. They are the Health Department’s need at this hour,” added the official.
