Govt doctors go on strike against anomalies in pay revision

A section of government medicalcollege doctors in Kerala on Friday staged a relay hungerstrike demanding the state government to rectify anomalies inthe pay revision of the college lecturers.Led by the Kerala Government Medical College TeachersAssociation KGMCTA and the Kerala Government PostgraduateMedical Teachers Association KGPMTA, the doctors stagedthe one-day relay hunger strike.Medical college teachers are fighting for theirprofessions dignity.

A section of government medicalcollege doctors in Kerala on Friday staged a relay hungerstrike demanding the state government to rectify anomalies inthe pay revision of the college lecturers.

Led by the Kerala Government Medical College TeachersAssociation (KGMCTA) and the Kerala Government PostgraduateMedical Teachers Association (KGPMTA), the doctors stagedthe one-day relay hunger strike.

''Medical college teachers are fighting for theirprofessions dignity. The doctors have been in the forefrontof fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. As responsible healthcareprofessionals, we are staging the protest without causinginconvenience to the public. Our demand is to provide arrearsfrom January 1, 2016,'' president of the Ernakulam unit ofthe KGMCTA Dr Unmesh told reporters.

KGMCTA called for the strike alleging that the governmenthad not given any assurance on providing arrears whileimplementing pay revision.

The pay revision, which was due in 2016, was done only in2020 and the government had assured that the wage revisionwould have a retrospective effect from January 1, 2016. But,it had not given any commitment on arrears, KGMCTA said in apress release.

The anomalies were in the pay structure of entry cadredoctors, resulting in a shortfall of around Rs 15,000 forthose who joined service after 2016, it said.