Warangal: Health workers' stir peaks

Warangal: Noisy scenes were witnessed at the MGM Hospital for some time with the police trying to evict the protest camp of the outsourced employees whose relay hunger strike entered the seventh day on Thursday.

It may be mentioned here that third party contract, sanitation, security, patient care employees etc, working with the MGM hospital have been staging protests, demanding regularisation of their services, equal pay for equal work and solution to their other problems.

The police arrested and shifted the protesting employees to various police stations after they had an altercation over removing the protest camp. With this, some workers climbed the hospital building and threatened to commit suicide.

One of the employees alleged that the Agile Security Force Private Limited agency has been irregular in paying salaries, bonus and provident fund (PF). He said that their fate remained the same despite giving representations regarding their problems to the authorities concerned. They also said, they have taken their problems to the notice of the Health Minister Eatala Rajender, yet there was no response.

Even though the contract period of the agency was expired, the MGM Hospital authorities extended it for two months, the government had promised additional pay for rendering services in the Covid-19 ward, which was not fulfilled he added.

Meanwhile, the health official ls sought the help of sanitation staff working with the Greater Warangal Municipal Corporation (GWMC) to clear the mounting medical waste on the hospital premises. Opposing this, the protestors raised 'Go back' slogans.