Polyclinic suffers due to technicians’ strike

Islamabad

The boycott of duty by several dozen technicians over non-payment of salary for eight months has adversely affected work at various departments of the Federal Government Polyclinic, the capital city’s second largest government hospital.

The protesting members of the low-grade staff attached to the pharmacies, laboratories, blood bank and operation theatres have been on a strike for many days and even demonstrated outside the premises.

They complained that they got the job after passing written tests and interviews but have been denied salary for a long time.  The protesters insisted that the court of law had asked the Capital Administration and Development Division, which oversaw the hospital, earlier this year to pay them withheld salary but the latter challenged the orders and thus, delaying action on the orders to their and family members’ misery.

They regretted that they were struggling to manage household expenses due to non-payment of salary but the authorities were indifferent to their plight. A member of the administration said the strike had badly impacted on the work at the protesters’ workplaces.  He said the litigation had hampered the payments to junior technicians mostly working in BPS-9.

A CADD official claimed that some anomalies were involved in the appointment process and therefore, the payment of salary to technicians was withheld.  He said the early resolution of the problem was being sorted out in line with the directions of the state minister for CADD, Dr Tariq Fazal Chaudhry.