Pressing for demands: Public hospital paramedics protest

FAISALABAD: The paramedical staff of public hospitals in the city staged protest demonstrations on Wednesday demanding a raise in wages and benefits. Paramedical staff of Allied Hospital, district headquarters hospital, General Hospital and Faisalabad Institute of Cardiology gathered outside their respective hospitals and blocked the roads for two hours. The protesters held banners and placards and chanted slogans pressing for their demands. The said the government had deprived them of their legitimate rights. Hakeem Khan Niazi, president of the Allied Hospital Action Committee, said all that the protesters demanded was that employees in grades 1 to 4 be paid salaries in accordance with the service structure and those in grades 5 to 17 be paid salaries according to the revised scale. He also demanded that health allowance and pay protection allowance admissible to the doctors and nursing staff of these hospitals be given to the paramedics as well. He said all contractual employees and daily-wage workers should be regularised, otherwise, Niazi said, the paramedics will extend their protest to other cities of the province.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 31^st, 2012.