Victory for contract workers of Hedgewar Hospital Delhi

Victory for contract workers of Hedgewar Hospital Delhi

May 7 , 2015

Contract workers of Hedgewar Hospital, Delhi won a crucial struggle continuing from May 1. Around a four dozen contract workers were unlawfully terminated by the hospital administration as the work contract was renewed. All the terminated workers started their strike and a sit-in dharna inside the hospital premises. The strike was led by ‘ Delhi State Government Hospital Contract Workers Union‘ .

A delegation of workers had met Labour Minister Gopal Rai on May 2 and then again on May 4. The labour minister unlawfully refused to have a dialog with Union representatives. Mr. Gopal Rai gave a useless letter to the hospital administration and asked them ‘to look into the matter’, rather than clearly directing the hospital administration to reinstate the terminated workers. It is noteworthy that it was Delhi Government’s interim order to all institutions under the state government not to terminate any contract worker ’till further instructions’. However, this interim order has proved to be a futile, as a lot of contract workers have been terminated since then, including the home guards and hospital workers.

When the labour minister Gopal Rai refused to implement its own directive, the striking workers of Hedgewar Hospital intensified their movement. On May 7, they continued their strike and sit-in dharna while a delegation of the Union led by Shivani, the legal adviser of the union, met the health minister Mr. Satyendra Jain. He also tried to dodge the responsibility at first. However, the Kejriwal Government had understood by now that this movement of hospital workers could spread to other hospitals as well. As a result, the Kejriwal government finally gave in to the pressure and ordered the hospital administration to reinstate all the sacked workers. Thus, the strike was won yesterday. It was the victory of the organization and unity of the workers under the leadership of Delhi State Government Hospital Contract Workers Union. Shivani, a member of the union, said ‘This struggle will continue as the workers are still on contract, though they are doing work of perennial nature. As per the law of the land, it is illegal to hire workers doing perennial nature work on contract. The Kejriwal Government is trying to betray the contract workers of Delhi. However, the workers are not ready to forget what they had been promised by the AAP during the elections. Workers of several areas and occupations have already boycotted the Kejriwal Government and the AAP protesting the brutal lathi charge on thousands of contract workers assembled outside the Delhi Secretariat on March 25. If the Kejriwal government continues to betray the working class of Delhi, it is going to pay dearly in the coming municipal elections.’
The workers have vowed to continue their struggle for a permanent job. The victory was celebrated by contract workers of different hospitals of Delhi.