Bhubaneswar: The Odisha State Blood Bank Employees’ Association (OSBBEA) has called off its cease-work agitation which was on since November 26, OSBBEA chairperson Anil Kumar Mohanty told the media after holding discussions with the Health and Family Welfare (H&FW) Minister Pratap Jena here Tuesday.
“The Health minister has agreed upon a few of our demands with important ones being ESIC and Provident Fund facilities to the association members besides pay and perks as per government norms,” Mohanty added.
H&FW commissioner-cum-secretary Pramod Kumar Meherda and other senior officials of the department were present at the meeting, sources said.
Sources said blood banks which were under Red Cross were brought under the purview of the state government a year ago. However, after several inconclusive meetings with the state government, around 181 employees of 55 blood banks across the state sat on a cease-work agitation at PMG Square here from November 26.
Meanwhile, the cease-work agitation virtually paralysed the healthcare as almost all the state-run medical colleges and hospitals in the state saw patients, who required immediate blood transfusion, suffering day in and day out in search of blood.
