AIIMS officers' association warn of strike by month-end

The Officers Association of the All India Institute of Medical Science is planning to go on strike by the end of this month. The Association has submitted a memorandum to the AIIMS administration listing their demands. The demands include a cadre review which has not been done for the last 30 years since 1992. The Health Ministry and AIIMS should consider the matter, they posed. Though they wrote several times to the Health Ministry in the past, they got no response, the Officers Association of AIIMS President Ajeet Singh said.

"Now the Health Minister has also changed, but our demands are still unanswered. We are requesting the AIIMS administration to undertake a cadre review which has not been done for last 30 years. Once the cadre is reviewed, the employees of Officers Association AIIMS can be promoted, but no consideration has been given so far," he said.

Other demands include the review of AIIMS's contribution to the national pension scheme. Ajeet Singh claimed that other government offices contribute 14 per cent to the NPS, but AIIMS offers only 10 per cent.

Though Delhi's AIIMS, Chandigarh AIIMS, PGI Puducherry Hospital fall under the same category, they are given different pay scales. "A coordination committee was constituted in 2012 at Deputy Director level with Delhi AIIMS, Chandigarh AIIMS, and PGI Puducherry to solve such issues, but all has gone in vain, and nothing has been achieved," he said.

He further warned that if the AIIMS administration does not respond to the demands, they will go on strike by the end of this month.