Was the General Worker Right to Refuse the Task? Seeking Advice on Possible Dismissal

Abdul Basit
Dear Seniors,

We have received a complaint regarding a general worker in the admin department of the hospital who was provided with room accommodation for a night stay at the hospital. The worker was informed by the night administrator about an incident on 14 March concerning a leakage of water from the sewerage line on the 2nd-floor patient ward area of the hospital. However, he immediately refused to attend to the complaint and stated that it was not his responsibility to handle.

As a general worker at the hospital with night accommodation, he was expected to carry out the necessary tasks and address the issue. We seek your response to the following query: was the worker's refusal justified? What actions can be taken against the worker? The admin department is inclined towards dismissing the worker following this incident. Your expert opinions on whether his removal would be warranted are requested. It is worth noting that there was a previous incident of a similar nature.

Thank you.
Madhu.T.K
Addressing Dereliction of Duty

This is a serious dereliction of duty. You should take action against the worker. Being a general worker, he is expected to handle all administration-related tasks, which include attending to issues like leakage from the sewage line. To start with, you can suspend him from work pending an inquiry. This should be communicated to him in writing, with the reason for suspension being dereliction of duty. Then prepare a charge sheet detailing the incident, including the date and time, and his reaction when informed of the water seepage. He should be asked to show cause why action should not be taken against his gross dereliction of duty within three days. Ask him to submit the reply in writing and warn that if he does not reply within the stipulated time, it will be construed that he is accepting the charges, and any punishment deemed fit by the management shall be taken against him without further notice.

If he provides a reply, determine whether his reasons for not attending to the work were satisfactory. If he is justified, then withdraw the suspension order. If the reply is not satisfactory, declare a domestic inquiry to investigate the incident further and make a decision. For this, you will need to appoint an Enquiry Officer. Some formalities are associated with conducting an inquiry. Without following these, you cannot dismiss an employee, and if you dismiss without following these formalities, there is every chance that the employee would return to your hospital.
Dinesh Divekar
Dear member,

Before deciding whether the refusal by the general worker amounts to insubordination, let's first understand the meaning of "general." The term "general" means "not specialized or limited to one class of things."

The job assigned to the general worker was to fix a "leakage of water from the sewerage line on the 2nd-floor patient ward area of the hospital." From the nature of the task, it is clear that this is the job of a plumber and certainly not of a general worker. At best, he could have been called to assist the plumber, but assigning the task of fixing the leakage was beyond the scope of his official duties. Therefore, his refusal does not amount to insubordination.

Job Description Considerations

Above all, have you prepared the Job Descriptions (JD) for the position of a "General Worker"? If yes, then is attending to plumbing complaints a part of the JD? If not, then on what grounds would you like to initiate disciplinary action?

The general worker could have been asked to have a look and provide a first-hand account of what was happening. Sometimes, merely giving instructions over the telephone is sufficient. However, the authorities expected him to repair the leakage of the sewerage water.

Tactful Communication

The problem with the general worker was his lack of tact in refusing the work. He could have come to the hospital, checked the problem, and then explained how he was incapable of fixing it. However, he lacked tactfulness, which incensed the authorities due to his lack of savoir-faire.

Learning from Other Industries

In the hotel industry, there is a person called "Ken Fix It." They are all-rounders who can handle any job, whether related to plumbing, carpentry, electrical work, air-conditioning, and so on. Your hospital needs to groom and deploy such factotums for night duty. Removing a general worker will not solve the problem. Take this incident as an opportunity to take steps to avoid repetition in the future.

Thanks,

Dinesh Divekar
aussiejohn
Why didn't the hospital call a plumber immediately once the problem was known?

I would never want to work in your hospital. How do you expect general staff to deal with these sorts of problems? One thing you have not told us— is this guy a plumber? If he is not, then as far as I can see, he is not qualified to touch sewerage pipes and is well within his rights to refuse.

Tell us this: if he was not qualified but forced to deal with the problem, how would you treat him if he did something that made the problem worse? Judging by your current attitude, you would have just sacked him and not given his final dues—for a problem he had no control over. Such is the poor state of workers' rights in India, methinks.

Please reply to us and tell us the full story, not just selected excerpts.
Abdul Basit
Sir, it might surprise you that he's a qualified plumber, yet instead of calling a cleaner to remove the sewage rubbish and repair the line, he outright refused to tackle the task. Sir, we have not sacked him. We are going to issue him a show cause for his behavior as we already knew that he could perform the task, which is why he was called. This case is under process.

Regards.
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