SUBHASH MISHRA
Dhanbad, May 12: Hundreds of outsourcing nurses, termed as ‘Frontline Corona Warriors,’ who were deployed at Dhanbad medical college hospital and district health department during the pandemic are now gasping for payment of their salary dues.
These nurses were deployed through an outsourcing agency named Front Line Limited at Shahid Nirmal Mahto Medical College (SNMMCH) and in the district health department for collecting Covid samples and conducting tests. All of them were removed from the service on March 31 this year as the pandemic started showing a downward trend.
But they were not paid their salary by the outsourcing company. Nurses deployed at medical college had three months’ salary due and those at the district health department did not receive a salary of three to six months.
The local manager of Front Line Limited said that since the state government has not cleared the company’s bills, salary payment of retrenched nursing staff is pending.
Over hundreds of nurses were deployed in the RT-PCR lab and two Covid care wards of SNMMCH and around 60 were deployed in the district health department for collecting samples and testing through TruNat, ART at the railway station, interstate bus stand and Jharkhand – Bengal border.
“It is not ‘International Nurses Day’ but a black day for sisters of Dhanbad who are gasping for pending salary. We do not rue over retrenchment as we were outsourcing employees but at least the government should have cleared our salary dues on humanitarian grounds,” said Binita, a retrenched nurse.
Jharkhand State Medical and Public Health Employees Association (JSMPHA) Dhanbad chapter on the occasion of International Nurses Day has shot off a letter to the National Health Mission director for ensuring immediate pending salary payment of retrenched outsourcing staff.
JSMPHA Dhanbad secretary Sanjut Sahay alleged that the government adopted the ‘use and throw policy’ with these nursing staff. “When needed recruited them and after taking work kicked out them that too without clearing payment,” he said.
No Covid incentive to outsourcing staff
Notably, outsourcing staff who were on the frontline in combating Covid-19 were denied the incentive declared by the central government. But at the same time, non-nursing staff such as office staff of medical college and hospital who were not directly associated with the campaign were paid the same.
A senior officer of the district health department said that the outsourcing company had a direct lineup with the state government in their appointment and retrenchment. The district health department had no role in it. On a contrary, their retrenchment has created a crisis.
