Bangladesh: Health assistants continue work stoppage protest for six demands
Health assistants continued to hold their indefinite work stoppage on Sunday to raise their six-point demand, including upgrading their posts to the 14th grade, local media reported.
Dhaka: Health assistants continued to hold their indefinite work stoppage on Sunday to raise their six-point demand, including upgrading their posts to the 14th grade, local media reported. Fazlul Haque Chowdhury, member secretary of the Bangladesh Health Assistant Association Central Coordination Council (BHAA), stated that thousands of health assistants, under the banner of the Bangladesh Health Assistant Association, began a sit-in on Saturday morning and stayed overnight at the Central Shaheed Minar in Dhaka, Bangladesh-based The Daily Star reported.
Chowdhury said that an 11-member team was heading to the Secretariat to hold discussions with the interim government. However, he announced that health assistants will not end the work stoppage until the government issues an order about upgrading their entry position. “But we will not withdraw our program unless the government issues a GO (government order) upgrading our entry post from 16th grade to 14th grade,” he added.
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On November 23, the association said that it would start a work stoppage if the government did not agree to their demands by November 28. Health assistants have raised six demands, which include amendments to recruitment rules, an end to salary discrimination, and the granting of technical status. On October 6, health assistants announced a “partial” suspension of the work stoppage protest that started on October 1 over six demands, including revision of the employment rules, Bangladesh-based bdNews24 reported.
The decision of health assistants came after a meeting with the chief of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) in Mohakhali. They said that the decision was taken as the typhoid vaccination programme was scheduled to begin on October 12. Speaking to bdNews24, Chowdhury had stated that the typhoid vaccination programme will start in Bangladesh on October 12. He stated that other activities will remain suspended until October 30 as as it is a one-time event, adding that the strike will resume from October 30 if there is no visible progress from the authorities in fulfilling their demands.
