Taking action against the city’s government hospitals for not complying with minimum- wage norms at their respective institutions, Delhi Chief Secretary Vijay Dev has asked the vigilance department to issue showcause notices to the heads of departments.
The institutions are Lok Nayak, GB Pant, Baba Saheb Ambedkar hospital and college, Jag Pravesh Chandra and Rao Tula Ram hospital, and the Delhi Health Secretariat.
The move comes after the aforementioned institutions were found flouting guidelines by not paying the due minimum wages to their contractual employees.
Dev had earlier asked the HODs and health secretary to ensure that all contractual employees are paid wages for the previous month by the seventh day of the next month.
Each HOD/Secretary was asked to send the compliance certificate to the CS by the 20th of each month.“The vigilance department is further directed to process the matter for issue of showcause notice for major penalty by January 28,” Dev wrote in the letter.
He also directed accounts officers to stop salaries of the defaulters till the wages are released. “We are following up with all HODs over this issue. Contractual agreements are taken care of by the HODs and nothing much can be done at my level,” Sanjeev Khirwar, secretary (health) told The Indian Express.
The Delhi government, in October 2018, had decided that those directly employed on a contract basis in boards and corporations at minimum-wage rates will receive payments at prevailing rates before August 4.
The decision was taken at a special cabinet meeting.
An internal report of the department last year had found that minimum wages, which includes Employees’ State Insurance (ESI), Employees Provident Fund (EPF) and bonus — had not been paid to most workers at the 35 Delhi government hospitals for the last 10 years.
The complaint was then sent to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and the then CS Anshu Prakash.“The previous secretary never took any action against the defaulters. The complaint has been pending for many years,” a senior official from the department said.
