Health assistants to launch indefinite strike over unmet demands

The Bangladesh Health Assistants’ Organisation has announced an indefinite peaceful sit-in at Dhaka’s Central Shaheed Minar starting Saturday if the government does not issue a notification on their six-point demands by Thursday.

The announcement was made at a press conference at the National Press Club on Monday (November 24) by Wasir Uddin Rana, chief coordinator of the organisation, alongside leaders Fazlul Haque Chowdhury, Ziaul Haque Kabul, and Abdus Salam.

The six demands include revising recruitment rules, addressing pay disparities, granting technical ranks, ensuring continuous promotion to higher grades, integrating trained and untrained health assistants into the graduate scale, and recognizing in-service diploma holders.

The leaders said repeated government assurances have been fulfilled, prompting renewed action. They also protested the transfer of two health assistants from Chandpur to Cumilla over objections to TCV budget allocations.

The organisation warned that the strike would intensify if their demands are not formally addressed.