At 11 am on Friday, doctors at the government medical colleges in Kerala joined duty, after staying away for three hours. From 8 to 11 in the morning, they boycotted outpatient procedures and elective surgeries, to mark their protest against the delay of salary dues and allowances for four years. Teaching at government medical colleges of graduate, post graduate and super speciality courses will also be stopped from Friday.
“We are still getting paid the salaries declared in the 2006 pay revision. The next pay revision was supposed to come on January 1, 2016. It got delayed by four years and nine months, until September 2020. And even then it is not clear if the allowances of these four years have been included,” says Dr Dileep, central executive committee member of the Kerala Government Medical College Teachers Association (KGMCTA), Thiruvananthapuram.
A doctor speaks at the protest in Thiruvananthapuram
On January 25, the doctors held a dharna in front of the Directorate of Medical Education (DME) office in Thiruvananthapuram, making demands about their arrears and allowances.
Two days later, Finance Minister Thomas Isaac informed through a Facebook post that the salary arrears of the doctors, between January 2016 and November 2020, will be added to their PF (Provident Fund). The minister wrote that this amount can be withdrawn in four installments in the years 2023-24 and 2024-25.
“But the minister’s post does not give clarity on the pending allowances of the doctors. For four years and nine months the pay revision file had not been touched. We approached several ministers and secretaries of departments so many times. Other government employees do not face this issue – they got their pay revision twice in the 14 years that we never got one. Why do they ignore us?” asks Dr Dileep.
The doctors will boycott all non-COVID meetings, and begin a hunger strike from February 5. “If there is no positive response from the government till February 9, we will go on a continuous strike. We do not intend to make the lives of people difficult by protesting. We could have gone on a 24-hour strike right away. The reason we chose a three-hour boycott instead is to still be able to treat the people, and there will be no obstruction of emergency surgeries,” adds Dr Dileep.
They are open for further discussion with the government, he says.