Finally - Kerala nurses to be paid more

There was some cheer for nurses in Kerala as the State government revised the pay scales of private hospital staff for nurses who had been staging protests to increase their wages. It is a small victory, but victory nevertheless, said Jasmin Sha, president of the United Nurses Association, which was part of the Industrial Relations Committee (IRC) constituted to resolve the wages issue. However, the State hasn t followed the recommendations of the S.Balaraman committee which had been set up by the government to study the problems of nurses working in the private sector.

The nurses basic pay has been increased from Rs 5400 to Rs 9500 for clinics that have 20 beds. The second category of hospitals with 21 to 100 beds will have a basic pay of Rs 10,500 and nurses working in hospitals with over 100 beds will have a basic pay Rs 12,900.

When the government asked the private hospitals to implement the minimum wages, the nurses got total emoluments up to Rs.8100-Rs.8600. Taking this into account, the agreement can be considered a victory, said Mr Sha. It has been agreed to make the retrospective payment from January onwards despite management s plans to pay new wages from the current month, said Mr Sha. These packages are for the entry level and there will also be a 2 per cent increase in the salary every year, he added.

The nurses are glad about the provision of trainees in the agreement. Earlier, a government order had brought in the post of trainees who will be fresh graduates with a salary of Rs 6000 in the general nursing category and Rs 6500 in the B.Sc. nursing category. The private hospital managements were not ready for anything over 15 per cent rise and the talks made them to give a maximum of 20 per cent, said Mr. Sha. We had threatened to launch a stir if this sitting again resulted in a stalemate, he said. They had about 25 sittings.

The Indian Nurses Association wasn t too happy about the developments though and Mohammed Shihab, the secretary said that by segregating nurses only multi-speciality hospitals with over 100 beds would have to pay what the Balaraman committee had proposed. He was also scathing about the hospital management s opinion that increasing staff wages would affect patients by claiming that nurses pay don t even comprise of 10% of commission paid for medicines and tests.

Salaries are not the only issue that the nurses had been fighting for, he said. The work schedules are important too. The nurses strike at Kothamangalam hospital failed to reach a compromise after many rounds of talks because of the unacceptable working hours, he pointed out. The only relief is the allowances given to nurses, he said. Advocate Hussain Koya Thangal, secretary of the Private Hospitals Association, said the hospitals inked the agreement to avoid any further unrest by the staff.

The hospitals will have to revise the service charges to meet the cost, he said.