HYDERABAD: After Gandhi and Niloufer hospitals, protests for a pay hike by contract nursing staff have now hit the Nizams Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS).A total of 450 contract nurses of the hospital — hired way back in 2012 and drawing a gross salary of Rs 17,000 ever since — protested outside the Director’s office on Friday.
“We were initially hired as interns for Rs 9,000. So far, our wages are increased only to Rs 17,000. Several board meetings were held to discuss a hike in our salary but our demand was never accepted,” Mohammed Nizamuddin, one of the staff nurses on protest, said.The issue has resurfaced now, a year later, as the management had assured the nurses of increasing their salaries to Rs 25,000 for those with less than five years of experience and Rs 30,000 for those with over five years.
One year has gone by but no substantive decision is made yet, they said. “The issue is that we are not even being given basic rights such as maternity leave which is mandatory. This hospital is treating Covid-affected doctors and we are taking on the entire work load with no equal pay,” Nizamuddin said.
Meanwhile, the NIMS administration said the files regarding hiking the salaries was approved in April.
However, owing to the lockdown the facility’s financial status took a hit and the hikes were delayed. “We have assured them that their salary would be hiked this month and reflected in next month’s pay slip. But now their demand is to hike the salaries to Rs 30,000, which is beyond what government is also paying,” N Satyanarayana, Superintendent of NIMS, said.