Nearly 17,000 contract employees affiliated with the National Health Mission (NHM) in Telangana are planning to go on strike from March 22 if their outstanding salaries remain unpaid. The aggrieved employees, part of the NHM Contract and Outsourcing Employees Union, have endured a salary drought since December, coupled with seven months of overdue Pay Revision Commission (PRC) arrears.
State general secretary of the union Rama Rajesh Khanna said: “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 in 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.”