Not Paid in Months, Contractual Staff at Delhi's RML Hospital 'Living Off Loans'
RML Hospital's contractual staff wrote to their Director saying they had not received their wages for over 5 months.
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42-year-old Suresh* (name changed) has been working as a lab technician at Delhi’s esteemed Dr Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital for almost 15 years. But he had not been paid his salary for the last five months of work.
“I have to keep borrowing money and taking loans to survive,” Suresh said as he indicated that the prolonged delay in receiving salaries was a regular occurrence. He has a family of five – his parents, wife and two school-going children – to take care of.
Suresh is one of the over two dozen contractual paramedics (not including nurses and clerks) who assist doctors at Delhi’s RML Hospital but often face months-long delays in receiving their wages.
On 3 March, the hospital’s Contract Workers Union wrote to its Medical Superintendent to underscore the “extreme financial hardship and uncertainty” that they were facing because of not receiving their compensation.
(Accessed by The Quint)
A week after the letter was submitted, a few of the contractual staff received their salary for September and October 2024. But they still haven’t received over three months' pay.
We speak to RML Hospital's contractual staff about why their salaries are delayed and how they manage to run their households without receiving wages for months:
'Wages Have Been Irregular, Delayed Since 2022'
Suresh had joined RML Hospital in 2009 after he responded to a vacancy put out by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in the newspaper. He was always keen on taking up a government job. Little did he know about the perils of working as a contractual worker.
“Our salaries have been irregular since 2021-22, when our contract was extended to six months. Initially when I had joined, the contract was of three months only and it would keep on getting renewed,” he said.
The Quint was given to understand that the hospital sends files to the health ministry for approving the salary of contractual staff — including lab technicians working in pathology and histopathology; PMR (Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation) technicians, who help people with disabilities and impairments; dieticians; cooks who run the canteen; as well as Lower Division Clerks (LDCs). Only after the ministry approves, the hospital processes the salaries of the contractual staff.
He received his salary for the months of September and October only in the second week of March and is still awaiting his dues for November’24 to February’25.
The Quint has reached out to the Medical Superintendent and Director, and the Deputy Director of Administration (DDA) at Dr Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, as well as the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) which falls under the health ministry and governs the hospital. We will update the story once they respond.
'Double Whammy for Contractual Workers'
“I have worked as an LDC (Lower Division Clerk) at the hospital for over a decade with no break in service until 2022. But just because I am a contractual worker, my salary has been way lower than a permanent clerk. To add to the woes, we don’t get it on time,” claimed Ravi Sharma, Treasurer of the RML Hospital Contract Workers’ Union.
He claimed the prior to the 2016 Supreme Court judgment—which ruled that temporary staff (including daily-wagers, contractual, and ad-hoc appointees) performing similar duties as permanent staff are entitled to the same pay—Ravi earned one-third the salary of a permanent clerk.
Post-judgment, in 2018 when his salary increased, his permanent counterpart still earned more than twice as much, Ravi told The Quint. And this is not all; contractual staff don’t receive social security benefits.
In May 2021, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) had announced that healthcare workers who complete a minimum 100 days of Covid duty will be given priority in forthcoming regular government recruitments.
However, a year later when the pandemic showed signs of ebbing, contractual staff at central government hospitals in Delhi—including RML Hospital, Safdarjung Hospital and Lady Hardinge Medical College (LHMC)—were allegedly served with letters of termination.
'Contractual Paramedics, Nurses Not Paid Salaries, Abruptly Terminated'
In March 2022, RML Hospital issued an order to terminate the services of 151 nurses hired on a contractual basis, saying it had filled up vacant posts with permanent staff.
Months later, contractual lab technicians and LDCs were also handed the pink slip. Although they appealed against the order in tribunals and courts, their cases are at different levels of progress.
While Ravi remains terminated with his case being sub-judice, Suresh was reinstated on 24 August 2022 as a court stayed his termination for the time being.
According to a Parliament Response by MoS (Health) Prataprao Jadhav given on 13 December 2024:
Unfortunately, instances of contractual staff being abruptly terminated or not receiving salary at central and state government hospitals are not few and far between.
In October last year, 1,000 nurses employed at various Delhi government hospitals reportedly complained of not receiving three months’ salary.
Again, in July 2024, Delhi’s Lok Nayak Jai Prakash (LNJP) Hospital reportedly terminated 51 contractual paramedical staff, who were hired to manage the COVID-19 crisis in 2021. In January the same year, the contractual staff at LNJP hospital had reportedly gone on strike after their wages were delayed for over 10 months.
“Healthcare workers are increasingly being hired on a contractual basis; every house has at least one person working on contract,” Ravi worried. He said he was working odd jobs to sustain his household as he waited for courts to decide his case.
At the same time, Suresh said that he would keep trying to get a permanent job in a government hospital as the difference is salaries continues to be significant.