THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The stalemate over wage revision of nurses continues with the private hospital managements sticking to their stand that they would not be able to increase the minimum salary as agreed earlier at a meeting called by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. The association informed in writing to the Minimum Wages Committee that it cannot pay more than 25 per cent hike to the employees in all categories in a hospital having less than 50 beds. In the dissent note to the committee, they said they could only give 30 per cent hike in hospitals with 51 to 100 beds, 35 per cent in hospitals with 101 to 300 beds and 40 per cent in hospitals with more than 300 beds.
Meanwhile, the United Nurses Association (UNA) and the Indian Nurses Association (INA) have come out against the stand of the managements, saying minimum wages were already approved by the government.UNA president Jasmin Shah said it was for the government to take a final decision on the issue. ‘’The hospital managements have now given a dissent note to the Minimum Wages Committee. The committee will now submit its recommendation to the government, which is the final authority to take a decision,’’ he said.Hoping that the government will not deviate from the decision, he warned of further agitation if it was not approved. ‘’We will have no choice but to go for agitation if the government does not take a positive stand,’’ he said.
INA secretary Mohammed Shihab said the stand taken by the hospital managements was not acceptable. ‘’The agreement on minimum wages hike was taken at a meeting attended by the representatives of hospital managements. Now they say it is not acceptable. If the government goes back on the minimum wages fixed earlier, then we would be forced to go for agitations,’’ he said.
In their note, the managements asked the government to have a relook into the earlier proposal. “When fixing the salary, the paying capacity of the employer and the resources should have to be considered.
“In our case, the income source is only the charge paid by the public. An enormous hike will directly affect the cost of healthcare and no democratic government would like to harass the people,’’ they said.
The Minimum Wages Committee will meet again on October 19.