Protesting PHFMC staff refuse to relent

The strike by the employees of the Punjab Health Facilities Management Company is going on in Mianwali.

The employees are demanding extension in their contracts, increase in their salaries and an immediate end to “illegal” dismissals.

Dozens of PHFMC employees, who had been posted in RHCs and BHUs of Mianwali, were dismissed from their jobs recently.

Employees have gone on strike due to “forced” layoffs, non-extension of contracts and non-increase in their salaries.

Unfortunately, patients were bearing the brunt of the strike since they were not being attended by anyone in the hospitals.

The PHFMC employees said that inflation had increased 500 times in the country, but their salaries had not been increased.

It was impossible for them to run their households at their current salaries, they said. They said that it was a cruel act on part of the company to fire dozens of employees.

The workers on strike had demanded of the caretaker Chief Minister of Punjab, Mohsin Naqvi, to take immediate notice of “the forced dismissal of the employees”.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 29^th, 2023.