Following govt assurance, lab technicians call off their protest

Jaipur: Lab technicians have postponed their protest after government assurance of looking into their demands.

All Rajasthan Laboratory Technician Employees Association (ARLTEA) have called off their protest. “The government has assured us that they are taking action on our demand. We have submitted an 11-point demand letter and they have discussed each point,” said Sateyendra Singh Kudi, state general secretary ARLTEA. The lab technicians had played a key role in testing COVID-19 related samples during COVID-19 waves.

One of their key demands was creating new posts of lab technicians. “The staffing pattern of lab technicians is quite old. The pattern which is being followed is even older than the free test scheme. Over the past 10 years, the situation has completely changed in the state with hospitals being upgraded, new hospitals have come up, new health schemes have been rolled out. It should be changed now to create more posts of lab technicians,” he said.

The ARLTEA has demanded 5,000 new posts of technicians should be created. They have been demanding that our grade pay should increase from Rs 2,800 to Rs 4,200 per month. They are demanding a change in designation and want lab technicians to be called medical lab technologists, senior lab technicians as technical officers, senior technical assistants as senior technical officers and senior technical assistants should be called chief technical officers.