PRINCE KUMAR
Ranchi, May 20: As many as 550 outsourcing employees in Ranchi who were engaged in coronavirus-related work are deprived of one month’s extra pay which was decided by the Jharkhand government in June 2021.
However, the regular, as well as contractual workers, have been provided with the Covid incentive as promised by the state government.
All the 550 outsourcing employees including 244 Village Level Entrepreneurs (VLEs) have not been provided with the incentive amount. Moreover, VLEs who were engaged as the frontline workers in the district are still deprived of their three to six months’ salary apart from the incentive.
One of the health workers engaged during the Covid period at Hatia station said, “We worked day and night during the Covid pandemic without taking leaves, saving lives of the common people. We were promised all kinds of benefits and incentives besides the regularisation of jobs, but have been retrenched without payment of salaries from November 2021 to March 2022.”
“How will we survive without salaries as we joined the job in hope of regularization of job in the government sector and have also left job offers in the private sector which came in between,” he added.
Another health worker (VLE), said, “While joining, we weren’t aware that we will be terminated abruptly. But after two years of regular service, during which we risked our lives to serve Covid patients, we have been removed from service without even paying the full salary which is our right.”
Ranchi Civil Surgeon Dr Vinod Kumar said that due to the absence of funds from the health department, the salaries, as well as the incentive among all the outsourcing employees, are due.
“Their salary and incentive will be paid as soon as the fund is released. Apart from the contractual workers all the health department workers including doctors engaged in coronavirus-related contact tracing, testing, supervision, etc work in Covid hospitals and wards besides control rooms have been provided with the incentive amount which is equivalent to their one-month salary,” he added.
During the second surge of the Covid-19 pandemic in the state, the Jharkhand government announced Rs 103 crore incentive for frontline health workers engaged in Covid-19 related work which will be equivalent to their one-month salary.
