Black Day: Paramedical staff demand raises

The paramedics rallied in front of the hospitals and held sit-ins in front of the OPDs

FAISALABAD: The paramedical staff and class-four employees at public hospitals in Faisalabad observed a Black Day on Saturday to protest against the non-acceptance of their demand for better wages, allowances and fringe benefits. The paramedics in two teaching hospitals – Allied Hospital and the Faisalabad Institute of Cardiology (FIC). They rallied in front of the hospitals and held sit-ins in front of the before Out Patients Departments (OPDs). They carried banners and placards and chanted slogans against what they called an the government. Rana Khalid, one of the protestors at Allied Hospital said that Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif had agreed to their demands on May 12 a year ago and directed the Health Secretary to resolve this issue on an emergency basis. “We demanded a raise in our wages. We also demanded revised pay scale and departmental promotion,” another protestor, Mohammad Hussain said.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 13^th, 2012.