Denied salaries, quarantine centre staff threaten suicide

Noida: There was chaos at the district hospital in Sector 39 after the housekeeping staff employed at the quarantine centre alleged that they were being denied salaries by their private contractor.
As the workers failed to get their salaries, two female workers — Poonam and Rekha — climbed the staircase of one of the buildings of the district hospital and reached the 18th floor. The two then threatened to jump off the building if they were not paid their salaries.
Poonam, a mother of four kids, told TOI that though they had been working since March 17, she hasn’t received a single rupee.
As the videos of the women attempting to jump from the hospital building went viral, the district administration ordered a probe into it. Senior officials of the health department and teams from Sector 39 police station reached the spot. The team asked the women to cooperate with them and come down.
According to the protesting workers, as many as eleven of them were employed by their local contractor, Jai Shankar Trivedi, and promised a monthly salary of Rs 14,500 each. The staffers alleged that the quarantine centre shifted to the Galgotias University on May 3 and since then, the contractor has shut operations at the district hospital. The workers alleged that the contractor left without paying them.
“We are working here since March 17 but none of us have received the full salary for the duration we worked for. When we enquired, four of us were given Rs 3,000 each for meeting expenses, some were provided with ration while the rest had to compromise with false assurances. We too have families to look after and we are serving the government,” Aditya, one of the staffers, said.
Arun, another worker, said they were told to wait and the contractor claimed that they would receive their salary in another 10 days, but to no avail. “The representative dealing on behalf of the contractor threatened to lodge a police case against us on Friday and also used foul language,” said Arun, another staff member.
As soon as videos of the incident went viral, a team from the health department, led by CMO Deepak Ohri and city magistrate Umashankar, reached there to enquire about the issue.
Umashankar told TOI that the contractor’s work had got over since the quarantine centre had shifted to Galgotias University.
“The matter is being resolved and the contractor has been asked to pay the salary,” he said.
A statement from the CMO office read that the district administration has taken cognisance of the incident and chief development officer Anil Kumar Singh and additional CMO Amit Vikram have been asked to initiate an inquiry.
The contractor’s representative, Kartik, said that they are handing over cheques of Rs 12,000 each to the staff members.