Healthcare services were hit severely at Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Medical Sciences (JNIMS) in Imphal, the second biggest government-run hospital after RIMS hospital, for the second day on Saturday. Apart from not admitting fresh patients, the OPD and emergency services in the hospital remained suspended since Friday after the striking employees had tendered resignation en masse on the previous day.
The employees of the hospital were on strike under joint banners of the Teacher’s Association, Trained Nurses Association and Association of all Non-teaching staffs, JNIMS, demanding implementation of 7th Revision of PAY (ROP).
Following disagreement with the government, they had submitted their resignations from their respective jobs on Thursday. Since then, they stayed away from discharging their duties even as their resignations were not accepted by the authority concerned of the institute.
A highly reliable source said that the JNIMS authority did not accept the mass resignations, while reiterating a recent order of the authority banning strike by its employees.
Meanwhile, a general body meeting of the three striking employees’ associations convened on Saturday reaffirmed their stands on the demand for implementation of the 7th ROP with notional effect from April 1, 2016.
The meeting rejected the government offered 7th ROP with effect from April 1, 2020 without any notional effect. The employees have been demanding implementation of the latest revised pay effective from April 1, 2019 with payment of cash in salary from Jan 1, 2020 and notional effective from April 1, 2016.
Mention may be made that in the latest talk with representatives of the three striking associations held on Thursday, the state government offered implementation of the 7th ROP with effect from April 1, 2021. Rejecting the offer, the employees took the stern step of submitting mass resignation, translating their earlier decision of tendering resignation en masse.
To pursue the demands, a joint action committee (JAC) of the three associations comprising 13 members representing the three associations was also formed by the general body meeting held at the Lecture hall of the JNIMS with Dr H Kalabidhu in the chair. A copy of the proceedings of the meeting was also submitted to the JNIMS director on Friday, reiterating their firm stand.
NNN