Stormbound BIRDEM
We are worried over the situation in BIRDEM. With the deadline of an employees association nearing and mum still being the word with the authorities, we are afraid, country's lone institution in the healthcare sector that has carved a niche for itself with its service is heading for a period of undesirable chaos.
The cloud that the BIRDEM has now gone under is a creation of the recalcitrance of its Employees Welfare Association (EWA) which is not only pressing for the annulment of a set of service rules but also preparing to physically bar some office bearers from discharging their professional obligations.
It should be mentioned here that the 1996 service rules over which the EWA is agitating now had been scrutinised by an expert committee spearheaded by the Health Secretary following similar chaos last year. The committee then observed in its report that the service rules which empower the authorities with the right to hire and fire are absolutely essential for the smooth running of a vast administration like that of BIRDEM. The underpinning of the employees demand that the service rule of '92 be restored is further taken away by the fact that the rules are in force only in the case of those recruited after 1996 and those who opted for a 20 per cent salary hike.
Above all, the Society Registration Act which BIRDEM is obligated to as a non-profit institution in the realms of social welfare does not allow room for CBA activities. What is now going on at the BIRDEM is not the saner aspect of bargaining but the brutal and blatant demonstration of muscle-flexing. We want the authorities to put their foot down. It has to be a strong and decisive step, no pampering or mollifying business as one official of the PM's Secretariat indulged in on a previous occasion. We have reasons to believe that it was his ineptitude and search for cheap popularity that has considerably helped matter to come to today's pass.
The government must take the BIRDEM as a test case. It has to resolve the crisis firmly because law is on its side and so are we. Its performance on this matter will give signals to all concerned whether it is for smooth running of institutions or for the tyranny of CBAs.
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