The AIIMS Nurses Union suspended its strike late on Tuesday evening after the Delhi High Court restrained it from continuing with its agitation against the hospital’s alleged decision to hire nursing officers on contractual basis.
“The [AIIMS Nurses] union has decided to suspend the strike respecting the High Court order today,” said AIIMS Nurses Union president Harish Kumar Kajla.
Justice Navin Chawla passed the order earlier in the day on a plea moved by the AIIMS administration against the protesting nurses who went on an indefinite strike from December 14 afternoon. AIIMS in its plea contended that the entire hospital had come to a standstill because of the strike.
The court ordered the nurses’ union to discontinue the strike “till further order” after it was informed that the grievances of the agitating nurses were being considered by the authorities. The High Court also issued notice to the union while posting the case for hearing on January 18 next year.
Last month, the nurses’ union had given a notice for strike from December 16 over an “anomaly” in their pay under the Sixth Central Pay Commission, because of which they are getting “paid less”, and other demands.
On Monday, AIIMS director Randeep Guleria had appealed to the nurses to call off their agitation and return to work. He termed the strike “very inappropriate” and said that 22 out of 23 demands made by the union had been met.
‘Forced to go on strike’
On Tuesday morning, the nurses protested outside the director’s office demanding “justice” and said they had been “forced” to go on strike by the hospital administration. Mr. Kajla told the media that the hospital administration has not come forward to talk to them since Monday afternoon and was instead “threatening” them against going on strike.
Mr. Kajla said the AIIMS director was “lying” about meeting 22 demands. “Not even a single demand has been met. Not hiring nurses on contractual basis was one of the demands. No one used to be hired on contractual basis at AIIMS till now. But now they have started doing it. We all went through an exam followed by an interview,” Mr. Kajla said.
The AIIMS administration in an order issued on Tuesday said “there should be no cessation or disruption of nursing functions” and non-compliance will be treated as an “offence” under the Disaster Management Act, 2005, read with the IPC.
