Nearly three lakh nurses in private hospitals in the State who had been on strike for the past 22 days have called off their agitation following talks with Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.
The Indian Nurses’ Association (INA) and United Nurses’ Association (UNA), which had been leading the strike, said here on Thursday they were calling off the strike as their main demand — implementation of the wage recommendations of the Supreme Court-appointed Jagdish Prasad committee — had been accepted by the government.
In doing so, Kerala has become the first State to implement the recommendations of the committee.
Accordingly, the minimum salary of nurses working in hospitals with 50 beds has been fixed at ₹20,000.
A four-member committee set up by the government, including the Health, Labour, and Law Secretaries and the Labour Commissioner, will study and recommend the wage revision of nurses in hospitals with more than 50 beds within a month.
The said committee will also look into the issues of private hospitals retaining registered nurses as trainees as well as their stipend. The recommendations of the committee would be submitted to the minimum wages committee for ratification, Mr. Vijayan said.
Addressing mediapersons, the Chief Minister said the stipend given to nurse trainees also needed to be revised appropriately.
The wage structure of nurses deserved special consideration because they were professionals who came through a four-year course almost on a par with the MBBS course, he said.
