ESMA Invoked To Prohibit Strikes By Nurses, Paramedics & Others in Odisha

Bhubaneswar: Odisha government has invoked the Essential Services Maintenance (ESMA) Act prohibiting strikes by class-III and class-IV employees in the health sector for a period of six months. The government took this decision to put check on possibility of disruption of medical services due to the ongoing protest over rape-murder of Kolkata doctor.

According to reports, the state government invoked ESMA as the Odisha Nursing Employees Association threatened to start cease-work agitation from August 27. They are wearing black badges for their 10-point charter of demands. They are also planning a token strike and a rally in Bhubaneswar without affecting patient care on August 23.

“In the interest of Public, it is necessary to prohibit strikes in the form of cessation of work by nurses, pharmacists, paramedics, technicians and other class-III and class-IV employees in government hospitals and dispensaries in the state,” the notification of the state government stated.

This ESMA imposition also applies to contractual employees in services/engagements connected with the maintenance of medical services in district headquarters hospitals, sub-divisional hospitals, area hospitals, CHCs, PHCs, municipality hospitals and ESI hospitals.

This apart, staff working in the medical colleges and hospitals run by the government and other autonomous health institutions receiving grant-in-aid from the state government, specifically Acharya Harihar Post Graduate Institute of Cancer, Regional Spinal Injury Centre, jail hospitals and police hospitals will also be covered under the provisions of the ESMA.