Andhra health workers launch phased stir over pay, regularisation

Contract and paramedical employees across Andhra Pradesh's Health, Medical and Family Welfare Department began the first phase of a graded agitation on Friday, August 21, 2026. The Andhra Pradesh Medical and Health Contract Employees Joint Action Committee (JAC) said the government had not even acknowledged their demands despite a large protest in Vijayawada on June 17.

G. Koteswara Rao, chairman of the JAC and a staff nurse at King George Hospital (KGH) in Visakhapatnam, told The Hindu that the government had “not addressed” the committee’s demands and “not even recognised” that the problems existed, even after that protest. He appealed to Health Minister Satya Kumar Yadav and G. Veerapandian, Secretary, Health and Family Welfare, to intervene and resolve the issues.

In a representation to senior officials, the JAC said staff nurses, laboratory technicians, pharmacy officers, ECG technicians, emergency medical technicians and dialysis technicians, among other contract and para-medical employees serving under the Directorates of Medical Education (DME), Public Health (DPH) and Secondary Health (DSH), had been working for several years without a resolution to their grievances.

The agitation is planned in stages. Representations will be submitted to Government General Hospital superintendents, District Medical and Health Officers, District Coordinators of Hospital Services and District Collectors until August 27. Employees will wear black badges while on duty from August 24 to 27, followed by lunch-hour protests and human chains on August 28 and 29. A shutdown of online work, including Electronic Health Records and “ABHA” registrations at primary health centres, is planned from August 30 to September 1. A pen-down protest at DME and DSH offices is scheduled for September 2 and 3. A State-wide dharna will begin on September 6, and a duty boycott, described as the final step, is planned from September 8, with prior notice to authorities and safeguards for emergency services.

The JAC’s charter of demands includes immediate regularisation of contract staff, full gross pay pending regularisation, an ex gratia of ₹50 lakh and employment for a family member in the event of death on duty, Employees’ Provident Fund coverage, paid medical leave, and transfer facilities for staff posted away from their families for years.

The stir comes even as junior doctors under the Andhra Pradesh Junior Doctors’ Association continue their stipend strike, now in its second week, seeking a 30% hike against the government’s offer of 3%. They are also opposing a proposed increase in the retirement age of senior doctors to 65. Two cadres within the same department are now pressing overlapping grievances at the same time.