The functioning of Cosmopolitan Hospital, a 350-bed private hospital in the city, was totally disrupted when the entire hospital staff went on an indefinite strike from Monday.
A joint action council of hospital employees, including all categories of staff — nurses, administrative staff, cleaning employees as well as technical staff — led the strike to protest against the slashing of existing allowances while implementing the pay revision as per the new minimum wages notification (2018) of the government.
While the striking employees claimed that Casualty services were not affected, a statement issued by the hospital management said no services except out patient clinics were functional. According to one of the doctors, all in-patients had to be discharged or shifted to other hospitals and patients on regular dialysis services had to be referred to other hospitals as none of the hospital employees were working.
Vice president of United Nurses’ Association Sibi Mukesh said all nurses in the private health sector intended to go on indefinite strike from the first week of June over the non-implementation of the MW notification by private hospital managements.
“We decided to join the strike at Cosmopolitan hospital along with other trade unions representing various hospital employees to stand as a united front,” he said.
A statement issued by Cosmopolitan Hospital management said the employees had gone on strike bringing all patient care services to a halt, including casualty services, even though the management had agreed to pay the revised pay scale as per the new MW notification.
The strike was unnecessary as the employees were demanding additional allowances up to ₹3,000 over and above the new revised wages, they said. Only OP clinics would function in the hospital till the situation normalised, the statement said.
Even though the District Labour Officer visited the hospital and tried to resolve the situation, conciliatory talks did not materialise. The Labour Commissioner is expected to intervene and hold discussions with the striking employees and the management on Tuesday.
