Strike By The Pharmacists And Class Four Employees In Patiala And Other Parts Of The State

The health services in approximately 1,186 health centers as well as in 582 veterinaries are falling under the zila pashads in the whole state including Patiala. However, all of them are completely filled with the class 4 employees and pharmacists. However, now all of them are boycotting their services from June 1. The main reason behind this is the demand of the regularization of their jobs. According to them they are giving their services for the last seven years and since they are not being regularized by the government.

Moreover, according to the reports, these class 4 employees and the pharmacists are working on contract basis in dispensaries and health centers since 2007 and till date there is not policy formulated in order to concrete their regularization.

These employees were selected by the rural medical officers in June 2006 by the walk in interviews in Patiala along with several other parts of state and were paid according to the RMO’s discretion. However, the average salary paid to these employees were Rs. 5000 and when these health centers came under zila parishad the salaries were enhanced up to Rs. 7000.

However, Punjab government regularized the RMO’s in 2011 and promised that the class four employees and the pharmacists will also be regularized very soon but the government has been increasing the contract every six months since that time.

According to the records, these pharmacists are handling approximately ninety percent of the dispensaries in the state and according to the contract they are supposed to maintain the records of medicine. In addition to this the maintenance of the medicines is also one of the duties of these employees. In spite of these duties they have to work for the salary of Rs. 7000 per month.

Now, these pharmacists in Patiala are demanding the equal salaries to their counterparts which are approximately 10,300 to 34,800 and 800 to 4200. This hike in their salary will bring their salaries up to Rs. 30,290. Similarly, the class four employees are also demanding to enhance their salaries from Rs. 3000 to Rs 15000 which is the salary of their counterparts.

According to the sources the government proposed these pharmacists in Patiala for the open merit completion in order to regularize their services. However, in this examination they will also have to compete with fresher.

However, the president of the association completely disagreed with this proposal saying that they already did their course ten years ago and at that time the merit was not that high as today. Therefore, they will not compete with such criteria.