The National Health Mission, Meghalaya, has initiated the move to rationalise the remuneration of all service delivery staff, it was announced through a press release.
Currently, NHM staff with similar qualifications and years of service draw different salaries, which can be attributed to the merger and dissolution of various “vertical programme societies” in the health sector since 2016.
Last month, service delivery staff had bemoaned that they were still waiting for rationalisation to take place, even though the same had been completed for project management unit workers. They launched protests over the issue and were also aggrieved that they have not received the promised 5 percent increment of their arrears since 2019.
“Under the process of rationalisation, the NHM aims to correct the disparities in remuneration of all staff by categorising the respective staff under 15 categories with respective basic pay,” the release said.
Staff under each category will receive the 5 percent yearly increment against the years of service under NHM. Rationalisation will be complete by the end of June this year.
As of April 4, 543 responses from NHM staff had been received to a call for suggestions and recommendations. These are currently being examined to ensure accurate formulation and smooth transition to the new pay structure.
A similar issue had existed in the programme management unit, which consists of 384 staff and the exercise of rationalisation was completed and approved in September 2021.
The NHM said that the third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic “and other exigencies” meant that rationalisation was delayed for the 1,984 service delivery workers.
“We hope that the exercise of rationalisation will bear fruit and ensure all cadres of staff are provided equal emoluments accordingly at par with their counterparts,” the release concluded.
