Bengaluru: Protesting Nimhans employees claim they were fired for asking for their rights

Bengaluru: Nineteen contract employees have been protesting since July alleging that they were sacked without proper grounds by the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS).

Amid the controversy, Nimhans issued a press release on Thursday, stating that all the workers were not employees of the hospital and that they belonged to an outsourced agency, M/s Sree Vinayaka Enterprises. It further stated that the issue was between the contract employer and the workers and that they were giving false statements to the press/media tarnishing their image.

As per the press release issued by the Nimhans Pragathipara Worker's Union that is representing the groups, the hospital fired these employees in July when they expressed their inability to work till 9:30 pm in view imposition of curfew in the city at 9 pm. Out of the 19 workers, 15 are women and the majority belong to the Dalit community. The scuffle erupted when the employees raised an issue about this time change and requested for a transportation service to go back home due to non-availability of public transport. Workers were met with vulgar abuses and a removal from their employment services on 9th July 2021, they alleged. Nimhans Pragathipara Worker's Union further added that M/s Sree Vinayaka Enterprises only entered into a contract with NIMHANS in 2017 a majority of them had been working with them much before the contract.

The workers have also played an essential role as Covid-19 frontline workers and have been at the forefront of the battle.

"It is also necessary to highlight that a large number of these workers are women. Housekeeping work in many ways is also a euphemism for sanitation work, which is a caste ordained profession, and it has to be emphasised that it is workers that belong to the Dalit community, who are forced to work under insecure conditions. It is no coincidence that it is Dalit workers who are compelled to work under such insecure conditions through various subterfuges such as "contract" and "outsourced", a form of work which the Supreme Court has seen as nothing but an improved version of bonded labour." said Nimhans Pragathipara Worker's Union in a press release.

The workers intend to continue their protest until their demands are met.