AIIMS to establish cell to improve engagement, payment processes for outsourced staff

New Delhi, May 20 (PTI) The All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi has decided to establish a dedicated ‘Outsourcing Cell’ aimed at improving engagement and payment processes for the outsourced staff at the institute, officials said.

The initiative comes in response to challenges faced by the outsourced staff, including lack of transparency and timely payment from the agencies providing these services, they said.

The Outsourcing Cell will operate separately from the Recruitment Cell and will be headed by Dr Shah Alam, Professor of Orthopaedics, as professor in-charge (outsourcing), with the assistance of Dr Anant Gupta, Assistant Professor of hospital administration, according to an office memorandum issued by AIIMS Director Dr M Srinivas on May 19.

The cell will collaborate with the existing staff handling outsourcing in the recruitment cell and will share the same workspace.

The Outsourcing Cell will be responsible for finalisation of standard terms and conditions to be included in all tenders for outsourced manpower at AIlMS, development of a transparent and corruption-free standard operating procedure (SOP) for engaging outsourced manpower and evaluation of requests for new outsourced manpower to rationalise the number of outsourced staff at AIlMS, as per the memorandum.

It will also be responsible for the management of currently engaged outsourced manpower through the recruitment cell, establishment of a grievance redressal system for outsourced staff, monitoring the functioning of all outsourcing service providers, including the engagement process, timely payment of wages, and fulfillment of statutory dues such as ESI, EPF, TDS, etc, it stated.

It is important to note that the functioning of outsourced services such as sanitation and security will continue under the supervision of their respective in-charges, according to the memorandum.

However, the welfare of the outsourced staff in these services will be supervised by the outsourcing cell, it said.