<p>Contractual employees working under the National Health Mission (NHM) will be stage a protest across the country on Thursday to draw the attention of the government to fulfil their long-standing demand for equal pay.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The contract employees want pay-scale on a par with the permanent staff and secure employment.</p>.<p class="bodytext">There are around 30,000 health workers, including doctors, nurses, lab technicians and hospital attendants working under the health mission in the state. They include 22,000<br />contract employees and 8,000 outsourced employees, who will boycott work on Thursday.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The employees on strike will go in a rally from Gandhi Statue near Maurya Hotel to the health directorate at Anand Rao Circle.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The Karnataka Janaarogya Chaluvali has said that the state government is pursuing a hire and fire policy, refusing to comply with the Supreme Court-mandated equal pay for equal work and pushing contractual workers to the brink.</p>.<p class="bodytext">In view of the strike, the Health department has directed all district health officers (DHO) and district-level officers to relocate the regular staff to needy hospitals.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The DHOs have issued suitable directions to medical officers and other regular staff to be in the headquarters and see to it that all hospitals function as usual.</p>
<p>Contractual employees working under the National Health Mission (NHM) will be stage a protest across the country on Thursday to draw the attention of the government to fulfil their long-standing demand for equal pay.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The contract employees want pay-scale on a par with the permanent staff and secure employment.</p>.<p class="bodytext">There are around 30,000 health workers, including doctors, nurses, lab technicians and hospital attendants working under the health mission in the state. They include 22,000<br />contract employees and 8,000 outsourced employees, who will boycott work on Thursday.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The employees on strike will go in a rally from Gandhi Statue near Maurya Hotel to the health directorate at Anand Rao Circle.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The Karnataka Janaarogya Chaluvali has said that the state government is pursuing a hire and fire policy, refusing to comply with the Supreme Court-mandated equal pay for equal work and pushing contractual workers to the brink.</p>.<p class="bodytext">In view of the strike, the Health department has directed all district health officers (DHO) and district-level officers to relocate the regular staff to needy hospitals.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The DHOs have issued suitable directions to medical officers and other regular staff to be in the headquarters and see to it that all hospitals function as usual.</p>