Following the non-payment of wages for two months and the refusal of employment to 55 ward attendants from Victoria Hospital, Bengaluru on May 8th, 2024, and the subsequent protest waged by these workers, a fact-finding team was constituted to investigate potential labour rights violations at the hospital.
The fact-finding team consisting of Aishwarya Ravikumar from People’s Union for Civil Liberties, Poorna Ravishankar from Naveddu Niladdidre, Maaligaraya from Tamate, Bengaluru, Madhulika T. and Avani Chokshi from All India Lawyers Association for Justice and two independent researchers, Siddharth KJ and Dr. Mamatha KN undertook their fact-finding over the course of 13th to 16th May.
Summary
The team found pervasive and systemic labour violations at the hospital. Such violations were not the sole refrain of the 55 protesting workers who were removed from service but were a feature of working conditions of workers across the board, including of housekeeping, security staff and ward attendants who continued to work at the hospital. These issues ranged from delayed payment of wages, discrimination in pay to unsafe working conditions, non-payment of overtime wages to sham labour contract system.
As the team was conducting its fact-finding, the 55 protesting workers were reinstated after significant pressure from the worker’s protests and other quarters. However, the team felt that the labour conditions it discovered at the hospital, and the impact of such conditions on patients were too severe to be ignored. Consequently, it was decided that the fact-finding report would present a more expansive account of the labour conditions at the hospital.
Key findings:
Profile of workers: Most workers the team spoke to were women workers who hailed from the Dalit community, and worked at the hospital for several years, with some working for as long as 30 years.
No equal pay for equal work for workers performing similar work: Workers were hired under 3 categories at the hospital to perform the same kind of work, but at varied pay. The first category were permanent workers earning Rs 50,000 a month. However, the hospital had halted all hiring of permanent workers, and several permanent workers the team spoke to were on the brink of retirement. Category two are workers directly employed through direct contracts with Bangalore Medical College and Research Institute (BMCRI) who earn around Rs 20,000 a month and the third category are workers hired through contractors who are paid Rs 14,800 a month.
Core and essential duties: Ward attendants perform duties at the hospital, which are core to its functioning, and are still not recognized as essential to the hospital’s operations. The duty of ward attendants involves transportation of patients from one place to another; ensuring patient hygiene; completing housekeeping duties and provision of overall patient care duties including facilitating meetings with doctors etc. The significance of ward attendants to the hospital’s running was evident when the 55 ward attendants were refused employment. With fewer ward attendants, patients received less continuous attention, increasing the likelihood of medical complications.
Sham contract system: All the removed workers were contract workers. However, the contract system is illegitimate as all workers we spoke to continuously worked for years at the hospital, while contractors came and went. The contractor has no real control or supervision over the workers and seems to be an external agency brought in merely to deny workers’ their benefits. This practice violates the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 which classifies employing workmen as “badlis”, casuals or temporaries with the object of depriving them of the status and privileges of permanent workmen as an unfair labour practice.
No appointment orders: None of the contract workers were issued appointment orders, giving wide leeway to the management and the contractors to modify the worker’s responsibilities and terms of employment as they saw fit.
Low and irregular wage payment: Payment of wages are regularly delayed, and illegal deductions are made from their salaries at the whim of the hospital management. Workers received their wages for March and April of this year only in June. The wages paid to workers were menial, and they lamented their difficulty with affording rent, children’s education, with their salary.
Understaffing and excessive workload – non-payment of minimum wages for overtime work: Due to understaffing, it was discovered that existing workers were burdened with long hours of work but were not paid overtime wages for excess work performed in violation of the Minimum Wages Act. The workers on night shift were also not paid any night shift allowance. Due to the extremely high work pressure, workers were denied fixed lunch hours and get as little as 10 minutes to complete their lunch.
Punitive leave policy: Ward attendants are only given one full day off a week while housekeeping workers were only given half day off in the entire week. Beyond a weekly holiday, workers are not entitled to paid, casual or sick leave. Wages are deducted even when workers are unable to attend work due to infections contracted from the hospital.
No free medical treatment: Workers and their families are at risk of contracting infections due to the nature of their work but are only given a rebate no free treatment from the hospital.
No transport for women workers: Several women ward attendants leave after 10 p.m. from the hospital after completing their work, and yet no transport is provided to them. At this time, since no buses are available, some workers walk over an hour in the dark to their houses.
Refusal of employment in violation of law: The workers were refused employment during the pendency of disputes for regularization, in violation of law. The Supreme Court has ruled that one set of ad hoc workers cannot be replaced by another set of workers of the same nature. Additionally, no notice or compensation was given to the workers before they were refused.
Impact on right to health of citizens: Victoria hospital being a government hospital is only available refuge for a vast number of vulnerable and poor people across the state. By refusing to staff the hospital adequately, the State is directly impinging on the rights of its citizens to receive quality medical treatment and is in effect violating the right to life guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution.
Demands of fact-finding team:
Drawing from our investigation, the fact-finding team recommends the following:
- Hiring contract workers in public health institutions like government hospitals must be stopped. Instead, health workers including non-medical staff must be hired directly, and be paid through the ‘Direct Pay System’ similar to the pourakarmikas
- The legal violations of the Payment of Wages Act, 1936 and Contract Labour Abolition and Regulation Act, 1970 by the hospital must immediately be addressed and Victoria Hospital must act as a model employer
- An effective grievance redressal mechanism with management and union representation must be constituted to deal with the various issues faced by workers at the hospital including legal violations, harassment, verbal abuse etc.
- In view of the impact of understaffing on public health, all necessary funds must be released to ensure proper staffing at Victoria Hospital
- A multi-stakeholder audit group must be formed including with members from civil society, trade unions and from the government to conduct a thorough audit into the working conditions of all government hospitals across Karnataka
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