Nurses of private hospitals in the State will go on an indefinite strike from Monday demanding wage hike. The on-going agitation of nurses at district centres will be shifted to the Secretariat from July 21.
Around 1.5 lakh nurses working at various private hospitals in the State will lay siege to the Secretariat till the hospitals agree to pay wages directed by the Supreme Court and recommended by the Balaraman and Veerakumar Committees, United Nurses’ Association (UNA) president Jasmin Shah said.
Health Minister K.K. Shylaja said the government had done everything to solve the issue. The UNA alleged that somebody had misled the Minister.
The hospital managements had declared to down shutters from Monday. Against this backdrop, State general council of the association held in Thrissur on Thursday decided to intensify the agitation by involving the entire nurses in the State, Mr. Shah said.
Earlier, we used to keep one-third nurses in the hospitals for emergency services, he noted.
“The discussion held by the government had decided the minimum wages as ₹17,200. It included the DA. After deductions of stay, food, uniform, dress cleaning and vaccination, the salary will reduce to between ₹11,000-13,000. After further deductions for PF and ESI, it will come below ₹10,000. The ₹23,760 salary projected by the government is for B.Sc. nurses working in hospitals, which has more than 800 beds. After all deductions, they too will get only between ₹16,000-19,000. Moreover, the State has only three hospitals with more than 800 beds,” the UNA said.
“If the government take over the hospitals closed by the private management, the nurses are ready to provide free service,” the UNA general council said.
The council decided to exclude from strike those hospitals which were ready to provide ₹20,000 as minimum wage.
