Gandhi Hospital sanitation workers go on strike

The contract workers launched an indefinite strike and held a dharna outside the administration building, demanding salaries for the last two months. They, however, chose to complete the first shift before starting their protest.

The  250 sanitation workers have vowed to remain off duties till over non-payment of salaries. “We have represented the issue to workers several times earlier but they remained reluctant to solve our problems. We had also given strike notice15 days back before launching the indefinite strike,“ said M Narasimha, president, Gandhi Hospital Contract Workers union.

Hospital authorities said they have allotted 150 permanent sanitation workers at emergency areas as well as other areas to ensure



that sanitation work doesn't stop.Hospital superintendent Dr Sharavan Kumar said, “Apart from deploying permanent workers to keep the work going, we are also trying to convince them to end the strike. We are hopeful that they will wind up the strike soon as the new workers policy, which proposed a salary hike, will come into effect from next month. I have held a meeting with them two days back but they took a hasty decision in launching the strike.“

The issue, meanwhile, has been going on for the last six months and the workers are fighting it out in court.The salaries of sanitation workers were previously hiked few years back, but the decision was not supported by senior officials in the health department, leading to a roll back.