Teachers of government medical colleges in Kerala are observing Saturday, September 11, as a day of e-protest, on the first anniversary of the last salary revision order. A year after the pay revision was announced, most teachers have still not received their revised pay slips - which would in turn bring the revised salaries. The revision itself had come four years too late, says a release by Kerala Government Medical College Teachers' Association (KGMCTA).
The e-protest will be observed by the doctors by deactivating their social media profiles on WhatsApp, Facebook and other platforms. There shall be no boycott of service or treatment.
"At least 60% of the doctors have not received their revised payslips. This means they are still getting the salaries that they received before 2016. The salary revision that was supposed to happen in 2016 got delayed by four years and was announced only in September 2020. In addition to this, there have been a lot of anomalies in the pay revision," says Dr Binoy S, president of KGMCTA.
Read on earlier protest: Kerala govt doctors boycott duty to protest delayed arrears, allowances
After the salary revision, doctors at the entry level would get lesser salaries than earlier, due to certain anomalies in the order. "For those who joined before 2016 and those who joined afterward, there is a salary difference of Rs 18,000 and Rs 9,000 in the lecture and assistant professor categories respectively. This is for the entry cadre," Dr Binoy says.
They also raise the issue of medical education being compromised to an extent because of increased focus on COVID-19 related work. Promotions are also not happening because of a few court cases that doctors have filed for the same reason. "In addition to that, general transfers which were supposed to happen in February have also been delayed. These are secondary issues. Our main contention is about the salary revision not being properly implemented," Dr Binoy adds.
The KGMCTA has written to the government earlier about the issue. On Friday, they submitted another letter expressing the same concerns.