Employees under Nagaland Rural Health Mission(NRHM/technical) expressed strong resentment against the “drastic” decrease in salaries following the creation of “Category D” by the state government.
The employees said they were irked because no prior information nor notice was issued inviting them to express objection, if any, by the department before issuing the impugned order.
The employees who met NRHM officials claimed they were assured that the previous status quo would be maintained.
They have requested the officials to “respond positively” by end of August 2013. It may be mentioned that on August 3, the NRHM had issued a notification on the revised categorization of various health units – categories A, B, C and D.
The categorization was made on the basis of accessibility/remoteness of the village/town where the health facility was located. This also showed drastic reduction in the salary of the employees under NRHM (technical) – deducted from Category A and B.
Hundreds of employees from various districts including doctors, nurses and other staff gathered at the Directorate Health and Family Welfare to discuss the issue.
They also met the officials of NRHM at the directorate and submitted a memorandum demanding to immediate revocation on the implementation of the impugned notification dated August 3.
They demanded the restoration of the salary as per the approval of the state Programme Implementation Plan (PIP) 2013-2014 and to restructure the salary package for Ayush and dental doctors.
The memorandum was submitted to the mission director NRHM and also forwarded to commissioner secretary to the government of Nagaland and chairman-executive committee state health society, senior PS to the minister health and family welfare and state programme officer NRHM.
The memorandum demanded that the government grant the benefit of yearly increments; renew the tenure of the contract period within time period; details regarding written and oral interview of the employees; provide benefits like Provident Fund and life insurance and maintenance of service book.
The memorandum also pointed out that the existing contract employees could be re-appointed under the newly created “category D” even though he/she belonged to that particular area and he/she may desire to serve at that particular place/area.
They claimed that creation of Category D as a new health unit was “done in a haste” and was “discriminatory against the existing employees” under the NRHM guidelines. The employees said that an appointment once made was not transferable from one place to another.
The affected employees also argued that they were appointed on contract basis in various categories under the state NRHM on fixed salary and without any additional allowances.
They also argued that the salary for the session 2013-2014 of the contractual staff under NRHM for different category of services was approved by the state Programme Implementation Plan (PIP) 2013-2014.
Representatives of the employees under NRHM (technical) informed Nagaland Post that they were not asking for a raise in their salary but insisting on getting what they were receiving.
A doctor from NRHM said that they have not complaints about the creation of Category D but that it should not lead to any compromise with their salary or else, salaries from all the employees under NRHM should be deducted and not only from category A and B.
Another representative doctor said that increasing the salary of Group-D to attract the employees might not help since there was no guarantee whether “they will work even if their salaries are raised to lakhs of rupees”.
Items Differential remuneration based on categorization of Health units
Existing Remuneration Revised Remuneration
Category A B C AVG A B C D AVG
Specialist 48000 55000 60000 52000 35000 43750 61250 70000 52500
GDMO 35000 40000 45000 40000 27000 33750 47250 54000 40500
GNM 15000 20000 25000 20000 13000 15000 20000 25000 18250
ANM/LT/Pharmacist 12000 15000 18000 15000 10000 12500 17500 20000 15000
Ayush MO/Dentist 20000 20000 20000 20000 22000 27500 33000 38500 30250