Nearly 17,000 contract staff affiliated with the National Health Mission (NHM) in Telangana are planning to go on strike from March 22 if their excellent salaries stay unpaid. The aggrieved staff, a part of the NHM Contract and Outsourcing Employees Union, have endured a wage drought since December, coupled with seven months of overdue Pay Revision Commission (PRC) arrears.

State common secretary of the union Rama Rajesh Khanna mentioned: “We staged a protest outside the Telangana NHM Director’s office in Koti on March 7. Despite garnering State-wide support from all employees, the Health department has remained unresponsive. Subsequently, on March 15, our attempt to meet the NHM director with a representation letter proved futile as he was unavailable, prompting us to redirect our efforts to the Health Secretary’s office at the Secretariat.”

Highlighting the union’s ultimatum within the letter, Mr. Rajesh asserted: “We have urged the government to ensure our salaries are credited by March 21. Failing which, employees will go on strike from March 22.”

As per the National Health Mission web site, in Telangana, the position of mission director for NHM falls beneath the jurisdiction of the Commissioner of Health and Family Welfare. The NHM Telangana Payroll web site signifies a complete of 17,514 staff within the State.

The union has additionally outlined a sequence of calls for, together with the regularisation of contract staff, provision of well being playing cards to all employees, implementation of 180 days maternity go away for feminine NHM staff, equitable allocation of informal go away equal to common employees, and provision of job safety for members of the family within the occasion of an worker’s demise.

Numerous staff have turned to ‘X’ to voice their grievances, however to no avail.