Nurses' strike: Unhealthy fight looms

KOZHIKODE: Battle lines have been drawn on the hospital front with the private sector  deciding to run hospitals without the services of trained nurses and the nurses’ organisations firm on not accepting the  new salary package cleared by the government. The nurses feel that the government and trade unions have ditched them in connivance with the hospital managements.  The salary has been increased to just Rs 17,200 along with all allowances which is almost the same as that of the cleaning staff. After cutting the Provident Fund (PF) and Employees’ State Insurance (ESI), the nurses will get almost the same as they received earlier (around Rs 13,000), it is pointed out.     Indian Nurses’ Association state joint secretary  Sanal Sebastian told DC that they will stick to their demands  which are as ordered by the Supreme Court guidelines.

“Now a cleaning staff will  get around Rs 15,600 whereas we will get a bit more. We need a basic pay of  Rs 20,000,” he said. “The nurses of only a few hospitals with over  500 beds will benefit slightly with the present salary formula,”  he added. “But how could they consider us as equal to the  cleaning staff?  Why our profession has been ridiculed so much? Why our  learning and dedicated service to the patients are not considered? he asked. The Supreme Court  had  given guidelines to the state governments in September last to revise the salary of nurses. A nurse of a hospital with 200 and more bed strength should get a salary equivalent to that of government sector (around Rs 34,000 with all allowances). Hospitals with a bed strength between 100 and 200 can  fix a 10 per cent less scale with all allowances. The lowest salary should be Rs 20,000 with all allowances.

Most of the nurses’ union leaders said they  prefer death to accepting  such inhuman  salary package after waging a prolonged struggle. Even with this salary,  many of the nurses are on the verge of suicide because they have taken education loans from banks. “This is our last agitation and we will win this at whatever cost,”  said Sanal Sebastian.   “If we accept this we will not be able to mobilise another agitation in the near future,”  he added.  “We are trained, experienced and dedicated. Comparing us with the cleaning staff and  machine operators is a joke,”  he pointed out. However,  sources in the hospital owners association said that the salary formula was not drafted by them.   A key leader said the revised salary formula  of nurses and other staff was drafted by various hospital employees' unions and  not by the hospital management.

“You cannot expect a solution other than this  as the non-nursing staff constitute 70 per cent of the hospital staff. When the United Nurses’ Association wanted  to fix the basic salary at '20,000, the non-nursing  staff also claimed that they were more skilled than the nurses, he said. While a lab technician and X-ray technician act independently, the nursing staff only assist the doctors. They are not independent. There was a division among the staff in which the union leaders of nurses got isolated. The ministers and unions also supported the demand of non-nurses.  That is why the  so- called union leaders, three ministers, including health minister K.K. Shailaja, kept mum on the claims of nurses. “We will be forced to hike the salary of young resident medical officers who are now receiving around Rs 30,000,”  he lamented.  

Aswin Chandran of United Nurses Association said  that the claims of the management were childish. A BSc nurse studies for four years to complete the course, including six months’ mandatory training. Moreover, they  deal  with flesh and blood and also face the  emotions of patients as well as the kith and kin. “We are  at the receiving end if  a patient succumbs to injuries or due to some wrong decisions of the doctor.  We do all jobs, including shifting of patients, collecting medicine from pharmacy, cleaning the wounds, assisting complicated surgeries and even guiding the doctors. They say that we are almost like the errand boy at the out-patient wing who calls out names of patients, and who now receives  almost the same salary as that of  nurses. The hospital managements claim  that they are ready to run the hospitals with the other staff. Let them show it and I am sure they will face the music,” he said.