Anti-dengue drive: Sacked health workers take to streets, again

Demand payment of pending salaries, reinstatement

RAWALPINDI:

Staff hired by the district government on contract on Saturday continued their protest against non-payment of their salaries and termination of their contracts.

Some 100 men and women gathered outside the office of the district coordination officer (DCO) and demanded for payment their dues. The terminated workers also held their protest on April 27. They ended their protest after district government officials assured them that their salaries would be transferred to their bank accounts.

“We have not yet received salaries in our bank accounts. We have come outside the DCO office again as we need salaries, and not mere assurances”, said Mazhar Qureshi, who has worked with the sanitary patrol for the district health department during its campaign against dengue fever.

He said that over 500 contract employees had been terminated by the district government, saying that the government had no funds to pay for their salaries. He said that the sanitary patrols were hired against a monthly salary of Rs14,000 for a four-month contract. He said that that they were awaiting salaries after the government had terminated their contracts.

Qureshi said that some workers had received some of their dues, but not the full amounts. He said that the district government needed to have staff for anti-dengue and anti-polio campaigns. He also claimed that the district government had hired 300 new workers for anti-dengue campaign.

He said that the most of the terminated workers were women who had no other means for earning a livelihood. He urged on the district government to rehire them and pay them regular salaries.

The protestors peacefully dispersed after Assistant Commissioner Sadar Ahmad Hassan Ranjha assured them that the salary would be transferred into their accounts in the coming week.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 1^st, 2016.