Mumbai: 150 paramedical staffers stage protest outside KEM dean’s office

Mumbai: Following a glitch in the biometric attendance system that led to hundreds of employees being paid less for the month of February, over 150 paramedical staffers protested outside the office of Dr Avinash Supe, Dean of King Edward Memorial (KEM) Hospital.

The workers demanded to stop the application of the biometric process. After government’s order, the biometric system was set up in the hospitals. But, due to the technical problem in the machines, the salaries of many workers were cut to half as many of them were recorded absent.

Trishala Kamble, secretary, Municipal Nursing and Paramedical Staff Union, said they are not against the biometric system but it should be improved as workers are facing problem due to its technical problem. “Attendance of most of the workers has not been recorded due to a technical fault in the biometric system. The civic body needs to upgrade the software due to which 705 workers salaries has been held,” added Kamble.

She added biometric system should be attached to the Aadhar card along with the salary. After which, the attendance should be recorded. “Since the workers work in shifts, their attendance is not recorded properly and leaves are also not recorded. Owing to this, the salaries have not been released and civic body has not said when they will salary will be released,” said Kamble.

The glitch had hit civic hospital staff the hardest, as they work in variable shifts. Dr Supe’s letter to Municipal Commissioner Ajoy Mehta, Additional Municipal Commissioner Idzes Kundan and Deputy Municipal Commissioner Sudhir Naik says biometric attendance will have to be configured for hospital staff on rotation and reliever duties, who need more time to mark their attendance. He said 60 per cent of the staff at major civic hospitals have fixed duties, while 35 per cent is on rotation and 5 per cent on reliever shifts.

“There are many things involved. Besides shifting duties, they also have compensatory offs, which need to be incorporated in the software,” said Dr Supe. The letter also said that the biometric attendance system has started incorporating shift timings from February 2018, but the different shift timings will have to be entered into the system.