Nurses’ strike raised in Parliament
Centre may intervene in the demand for a fair wage if required, minister says
The ongoing strike by nurses in Kerala, demanding a fair wage, figured in the Indian Parliament yesterday, giving a morale boost to the striking unions.
Congress MPs from Kerala, Anto Antony and K.C. Venugopal raised the issue in Parliament.
Federal Health Minister Jagat Prakash Nadda said nurses ought to be paid as per an existing Supreme Court directive and that it was the responsibility of the respective state governments to ensure that they were paid accordingly.
The health minister said that the federal government had concern about the welfare of nurses and indicated that the federal government may intervene in the matter if required.
Meeting chief minister
The federal government had set up two committees to study the demands of nurses and give suggestions for a wage and benefits pattern for them.
Nurses in private hospitals in Kerala are striking for a minimum wage of Rs20,000 (Dh1,142) per month.
Leaders of the United Nurses’ Union and the Indian Nurses Association say that many hospitals pay their nursing staff salaries lower than Rs10,000 per month.
State chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan has called the nurses’ representatives for a meeting today to try and end the deadlock.
In a related development, nursing students in Kannur district who were on strike in protest against a directive by the district collector, called off their strike yesterday. The students were angered by the collector’s directive to deploy them at hospitals in place of nurses who are on strike.
The students’ strike was called off after it was agreed that the collector would freeze the instruction.