Public Meeting against Illegal Retrenchement of Sanitation Workers in Delhi Hospital
Trade Unionists, Journalists, Doctors and Civil Rights Activists Speak Out against Illegal Retrenchment and Demand Implementation of Delhi HC Order
On the 72nd Day of Struggle of Sanitation Workers of LHMC Hospital Complex against Illegal Retrenchment a solidarity public meeting was held at Jantar Mantar on 12 July.
After a spate of retrenchments of contractual medical staff, massive retrenchment of sanitation workers have taken place in different Delhi hospitals. In the hospital complex of LHMC alone that includes Lady Harding Medical College, Sucheta Kripalani Hospital and Kalawati Saran Children’s Hospital, around 357 contractual sanitation workers have been retrenched. These workers have been working in the institute for more than a decade and have now been retrenched in an arbitrary manner.
The sanitation workers of LHMC have been holding an energetic protest sit in at the gate of the hospital facing police intimidation and repression since 1st May. On the 72nd day of their struggle, a solidarity public meeting and Press Conference was held at Jantar Mantar.
Bezwada Wilson, National Convenor of Safai Karmachari Andolan said at the meeting, "Why is it so that a High Court order mandating reinstatement of the sanitation workers is being defied so openly by a central government run institution? It is the reflection of the same age old casteist mentality that denies to recognise Dalits as equal human beings."
Anil Chamadia, senior journalist expressed his solidarity with the movement. He said, "The present struggle of the sanitation workers is a very important struggle to ensure equal rights for those who have been forced into a caste ordained profession. Sanitation is most essential work for the functioning of any institution. And it is the sanitation workers who are denied every scope of social mobility and economic rights. It is a systematic design to maintain caste determined profession and oppression."
Mange Ram, veteran Trade Unionist and former president of RAKCON Karamchari Union said, "The pandemic has shown us the importance of public health infrastructure. And it is the sanitation and medical workers of these hospitals who run basic services in these hospitals. This use and throw attitude towards the sanitation workers of hospitals is thus an attack on the very core of functionality of public funded hospitals."
Kawalpreet Kaur, Advocate and counsel for the retrenched workers in court said, "The sanitation workers of LHMC are fighting a spectacular battle, because they are not only fighting for themselves, they are fighting for ensuring rights of all contractual workers. Denial of legal rights of the contractual workers is a norm established by all institutions. Even a Delhi High Court order doesn't matter for the hospital administration. The present battle of the LHMC workers is thus a battle to defend legal rights of workers."
ND Pancholi, National VP, PUCL said at the meeting, "Contractualisation is a practice that has been introduced to turn workers into slaves who have no right to speak out against injustice. Thus, your battle is against the contract Raj that reinforces casteist and classist exploitation."
Sanitation workers, the core constituent of the workforce that runs any institute, are most often the ones whose legal and social rights are presumed to be non-existent by the powers that be.
When the country was going through the deadly effects of the Covid19, it is the sanitation workers along with the health staff of the hospitals, who saved people from the dangerous disease through their services. Yet, these are the workers who are being dispensed off, in complete violation of law and procedure, from different hospitals all over the country. We remember how during the peak of Covid Wave, the Central Government led by Narendra Modi presented their ornamented rhetoric to respect the frontline workers for their role to save the nation from the disease. It is indeed ironic to see the same Central Government to ignore a Delhi High Court order to reinstate the sanitation workers of Delhi Hospitals.
Background of the Struggle by Sanitation Workers of LHMC and Attempts of Union Busting and Victimisation by Hospital Administration-
The recent retrenchment of the sanitation workers should be seen in the context of their protracted struggle for rights and union formation. Most of the retrenched sanitation workers have been working in the institute for many years. They formed their union Kalawati Saran Contract Karamchari Union (affiliated to AICCTU) in December 2017. In 2019, more than 100 workers of Kalawati Saran Children’s Hospital started their struggle for implementation of legal minimum wages and succeeded.
The workers are relentlessly fighting a legal and political battle for implementation of EPF and ESI, equal pay for equal work under CLARA , 1970 and for regularization of their services. While their petitions are still subjudice in various courts, the hospital administration has retrenched them in end April 2022.
From 1st May, the workers have been fighting an energetic battle against the illegal and arbitrary retrenchments. They have been holding protest sit-ins at the gate of LHMC for more than two months now. In the meantime, through the intervention of the union, the Delhi HC ordered reinstatement of the workers with pending cases before it.
The Delhi High Court’s direction for their continuation of service via order number W.P.(C) 6674/2022 dated 31.5.2022 is as follows:
“It is directed that in case the respondents engage any new contractor for the same work(s) which the petitioners have been performing for the last many years, the respondents will direct the said contractor to engage the petitioners on the same terms and conditions as existing today without demanding any commission or premium from them for such engagement. Consequently, till the next date the services of the petitioners shall not be terminated and they will be permitted to continue under the new contractor, if any, engaged by the respondents.”
Despite such a clear order from Delhi High Court, neither the hospital administration, nor the contractor have taken back the workers. Moreover, on 24 June, one of the sanitation workers and an activist of AICCTU, Comrade Nitin, was physically assaulted by a police personnel of Mandir Marg police station. The AICCTU has filed a complaint and is committed to ensure that the police personnel is punished for assaulting a Dalit sanitation worker.
The struggle of the sanitation workers of LHMC hospital complex in Delhi resonates in every other places of the city and also of the country. Forced into a caste ordained profession, the sanitation workers are being systematically denied their rights. The sham contract system has made the situation worse.
The workers resolved to continue their battle until everyone is reinstated and legal rights of contractual workers like Equal Pay for Equal Work, ESI, PF and regularisation are ensured.
