HR manager assaulted by employees at Ruby Hall Clinic

A work place conflict at Ruby hall Clinic ended in a slugfest after miffed contractual employees assaulted the human resource(HR) manager on Tuesday morning. The employees were protesting outside the hospital CEO's office against the delay in making them permanent employees, when the Deputy General Manager (HR) Sandeep Kulkarni's interference irked them, and they resorted to violent behaviour.

Beaten up:u00a0Deputy General Manager (HR)u00a0Sandeep Kulkarni was assaulted by contractual employees of Ruby Hall Clinic after he tried to intervene in their protest. File Pic

After the hospital administration filed a complaint, police registered a non-cognisable offence and detained the main accused Rakesh Zende under various sections of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC). Zende was let off after a few hours.

Shivaji Kamble, police inspector at Koregaon Park, said, "We have lodged a non-cognisable offence based on Kulkarni's complaint, under various sections of the CrPC. We also detained Zende. He too lodged a complaint against the hospital officials, including Kulkarni."

Unruly behaviour
"I was making my way to the lobby when the security guards informed me that some employees are gathered outside the CEO Bhomi Bhote's office. When I reached the spot, around 20 contractual employees were trying to enter Bhote's cabin. SinceBhote was busy interacting with some mediapersons, I intervened.

I tried to pacify them, but to no avail. Zende then started assaulting me, after which a few others followed. I sustained injuries to my hand and chest, while another colleague's finger was hurt in the attack," said Kulkarni. The employees, however, did not stop and vented their anger at a few security guards present there, assaulting them too.

"The employees had approached us with their grievances on Friday, but since I was leaving for my home town, I asked them to come on Monday morning. They did not show up on Monday, but turned up outside the CEO's office on Tuesday," added Kulkarni.

Condemning the incident, the contractor Valmiki Mantry of Sai Krupa Enterprises, under whom these employees were appointed at Ruby, said, "Those boys wanted to become permanent employees and they were impatient. I told them that if they workd properly, they will become permanent. But they did not listen and started agitating and then assaulted senior officers. They should not have done this."

Staff instigated
Hospital authorities believe six employees, who were suspended in July for wrongdoings, have instigated the contractual employees. "The six permanent employees were suspended in Julyand the enquiry is ongoing. Keeping the action taken by us inmind, they influenced their friends and Zende is one of them.u00a0Earlier, they had tried to pressurise us by dropping the name of a political leader, also threatening to lodge an atrocity complaint. When we did not pay any heed to their threats, they have resorted to this tactic. They have planned this attack on me," said Kulkarni. u00a0

The other side
Claiming they have been treated unfairly, Zende said, "Ruby Hall authorities have done injustice to us. We have been working for the last six years, but they have not made us permanent yet. They verbally abused us, so I assaulted them."