They demand for periodical pay revision under Government Order No. 354
They demand for periodical pay revision under Government Order No. 354
Members from the Federation of Government Doctors’ Associations (FOGDA) on Sunday conducted a demonstration, drawing the attention of the government on their long-pending demand of periodical pay revision and other issues.
Nearly 1,000 doctors participated in the protest near the Chennai District Collectorate. They also demanded that the government consider their charter of demands immediately.
P. Balakrishnan, convener of FOGDA, said, “The long-pending demand of the Tamil Nadu government doctors, the revision of Government Order No. 354, which guarantees the pay band IV at the end of 12 years, which was supposed to be implemented in the year 2017, has not been implemented till date. This has caused great disappointment and frustration among government doctors. When the private hospitals hesitated, we government doctors stood up to fight COVID-19 with sacrifice and dedication and thousands of precious lives were saved.”
They also demanded the government to recall the recent order revising the duty timings of health workers at primary health centres (PHCs). The duty timing was revised to 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. from 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. They said since the doctors were also doing field activities and on-call duties in addition to health centres, the recent order was against their welfare.
They said 11,000 doctors have been enrolled in the Doctors Corpus Fund (DCF) scheme, which was introduced in March 2020 for the benefit of their families but funds had not been given to any beneficiary yet.
