BAJAUR: Sanitation workers of the Khar district headquarters hospital on Friday protested non-payment of their salary for the last one year and warned they would boycott work if their dues were not cleared within a week.

The protest was staged outside the office of the hospital’s medical superintendent.

The protesters said the hospital had 74 cleaners and seven supervisors, who were appointed on a contractual basis one and a half years ago for an extendable period of two years.

They insisted that contract letters promised the payment of salary by the fifth of every month, but they’re paid for the first six months only, and that, too, after their “great efforts.”

Threaten to boycott work after a week

The protesters called the prolonged non-payment of salaries unjustified and an injustice to them.

“It’s nothing but an insult to us because we did our duties with great commitment despite our low salary,” a demonstrator told Dawn.

He said that sanitation workers mostly belonged to poor families and had no other source of income, and therefore, the denial of salary for months had caused financial distress to them and their family members.

The protesters criticised the hospital’s medical superintendent for “not taking up the matter with the provincial health department for resolution.”

The sanitation workers complained that they raised the issue with the MS many times, but he insisted that it was related to the provincial government and not him.

They asked the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf-backed members of the provincial assembly to play their due role in getting their withheld salaries released by the government without further delay to their relief.

The protesters warned that if their payments pending for the last one year weren’t cleared within a week, then they would all boycott their respective duties until the demand was met.

A senior official of the local health department told Dawn that those workers were appointed for a fixed salary during the last PTI government, mostly on the recommendation of the then local lawmakers of the ruling party.

He, however, said that the district headquarters hospital recently sent a summary to the health and finance departments for the immediate release of funds to clear the dues of those sanitation workers.

The official said that he was hopeful that those workers would get their payments by the end of the current month.

Published in Dawn, May 4th, 2024