HDF employees stage protest, demand regularization

HDF employees during a protest demonstration in Jammu on Tuesday. -Excelsior/Rakesh
HDF employees during a protest demonstration in Jammu on Tuesday. -Excelsior/Rakesh

Excelsior Correspondent

JAMMU, Feb 1: Hospital Development Fund (HDF) employees today staged a protest demonstration here at Press Club demanding regulations of their services and implementation of Minimum Wages Act.
Wearing Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), the HDF employees staged a peaceful demonstration while raising slogans in support of their demands. “We have been working in different hospitals for the last 20 years, getting a meager salary of Rs 1,000 to Rs 5,000 under Hospital Development Fund (HDF),” one of the protesters said.

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He said they have come on the road to highlight their demand for regularization of their services and implementation of the Minimum Wages Act. “We have put our lives at stake during the first and second of COVID-19 but our neither our wages have been enhanced nor we have been regularized,” he added.
“We don’t want too much from the authorities. We only want that we be included in Regularization Policy of SRO 520 and by the time our services are regularized, Minimum Wages Act should be implemented so that we may get a respectable salary and fulfill basic needs of our family members,” the protesting HDF employees said.
The agitating employees said they worked tirelessly during the COVID-19 and didn’t visit homes for months to see their dear ones. “Even our meager wages were held by the Department several times but we continued to provide our services. We have given our precious years in the service of the Department and now we are not eligible to apply for any other post in any other Department,” they said and demanded the Government to regularize their services.