The ongoing strike by private hospital nurses here under the leadership of the Indian Nurses’ Association (INA) demanding pay hike has been intensified following the failure of the government-initiated talks on July 10. Nurses in more private hospitals in Kannur and Kasaragod districts began strike on Tuesday.
While nurses in five private hospitals are continuing their strike here, nursing staff in four more hospitals in the district — Ashoka Hospital and KIMST Hospital in Kannur and Saba Hospital and Anamaya Hospital at Payyannur — started strike on Tuesday.
In Kasaragod
INA functionaries also said that nurses in 12 hospitals at Kanhangad and Kasaragod also began the strike on Tuesday.
“We are intensifying the strike demanding the implementation of the Supreme Court’s order to pay equal pay for equal work,” said INA secretary E.M. Vineeth Krishnan.
The talks on Monday had failed because the managements were ready to increase the pay to ₹17,200 by merging existing allowances to basic salary. In effect, there was no increase, Mr. Krishnan said.
If the Supreme Court order should be complied with, the salary would be ₹27,800 in major hospitals, he said. At present, even hospitals having 300 to 400 beds were paying not even ₹20,000, which was the salary fixed by the apex court for nurses working in hospitals with 50 beds, he said.