Despite Delhi HC order, Lady Hardinge contractual staff allege salaries being held
New Delhi: Contractual workers at the Lady Hardinge Medical College have now alleged that the hospital administration is not obeying the Delhi High Court's order to pay them pending wages expeditiously and retain them at their positions in the healthcare
facility.
A contractual worker who was illegally terminated but later hired back after the high court order said they are still not getting their duties back. "We have worked in COVID wards and the admin is not considering it as official work. Meanwhile, we have also not been paid our salaries," Karan, one of the hospital's contractual workers said.
The Delhi High Court had ordered Lady Hardinge Medical College to retain 35 members of the Multi Tasking Staff (MTS) after they alleged illegal termination by the authorities and the contractor that was replacing their erstwhile employer.
A chink in the contractual hiring policy of the hospital had left over 200 staff members of the dedicated COVID-19 healthcare facility in a lurch, who after having served on the frontlines of the Coronavirus battle, had been asked to leave.
Every six months, a new contractor is hired, who brings in new workers as part of the Multi-Tasking Staff. These employees usually help out with patient management, starting from dressing them to moving them from one ward to the other and also sometimes dispose of used protective gear.
When some of the terminated workers had approached the high court, the court had ordered the hospital to retain these workers and held that they could not be terminated even with the new contractor being hired.
"The contract workers who returned to their jobs are going through harassment by the authorities even after the High Court order," the workers' lawyers and the All India Central Council of Trade Unions (AICCTU) have said.
Another worker said that she had not received her salary, while the administration is not even considering them as COVID-19 workers despite them having worked in the ward.
