PGI Chandigarh sanctions Rs 22.57 Crore to Settle Outsourced Workers' Arrears

Chandigarh: The Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) Chandigarh authorities have sanctioned a sum of Rs 22.57 crore to the contractor to clear the pending arrears of outsourced hospital attendants. This amount covers the arrears from November 2018 to December 2023 and is set to be disbursed soon into the salary accounts of the concerned workers.

The decision came after the Hospital Attendants Contract Workers Union (HACWU), which represents the outsourced workers, had staged a week-long strike starting October 10, 2023, to demand the clearing of their pending dues. This strike which has disrupted the essential services of the hospital ended on October 17 after the intervention of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, which instructed the workers to return to their duties.

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Following the end of the strike on October 17, Vikramjit Singh, president of the PGI All Contract Workers Union, along with Rajesh Chauhan, president of HACWU, and Gurdeep Kaur, president of the Mahila Contract Workers Union, pursued the matter with PGI authorities. In a positive turn of events, the PGI administration sanctioned Rs 22,57,73,572 in favour of BVG Indian Ltd. Singh and the other presidents expressed gratitude to the PGI administration for meeting their demands before the year's end, and conveyed that the amount would be disbursed in a matter of days. 

As per the recent media report by Tribune India, Singh added, “This fight for arrears would have not been incomplete without the support of sanitation attendants, kitchen bearers, and laundry technicians as they came out in support of our fellow outsourced workers.”