The MOSC Medical College, Kolenchery, would start functioning from Monday as the 23-day old nurses strike comes to an end. The hospital management has come around to agree to a package for fair wages for the nurses and other demands like work schedules.
The nurses would get minimum wages of about Rs. 8400 at the entry level, and after one year probation, Rs. 11,000 with yearly increment of Rs. 500. The three-shift work schedule is presently followed only in the ICU. It would be brought about in other departments in about six months.
At the Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences, the nurses' association has given a notice to go on strike on Tuesday with regard to the transfer of a nurse. While the management has a right to the appointments and transfer policy, the nurses believe that the transfer has come about reckoning the role of the nurse concerned in the nurses' strike in December.
A statement that by Prem Nair, medical director of the AIMS, stated that the hospital was given time till March 9 to complete the formalities in implementing minimum wages for nurses, and this has already been implemented in January 2012 salaries. The issue of strike is petty as the employees are asked, at the time of appointment, about rendering services at any branch of the Amrita hospital. The hospital also gives a month's joining time for transfers. The strike has come about even after the management had many times extended the time for joining at the new location.
