Kerala: Minimum wages notification a farce, say nurses and managements

KOCHI:  Contrary to expectations, the much-awaited minimum wages revision, which was notified the other day, seems to have not had the desired effect to please both the nurses community or the hospital managements in the state.

Representatives of both the sections have expressed their discontentment with the notification in its current form. While the notification does increase the minimum wages to Rs 20,000 per month for nursing staff, including additional allowances based on the number of beds in the hospital, the nurses feel there are a lot of loopholes in the final order.

The Indian Nurses Association (INA) has decided to go ahead with the strike they have called from May 12. “They have cut down the allowances. We had protested against this even at the committee. We want the minimum wages to be as per the Supreme Court directives and will fight to achieve it till the notification is issued as such,” said Libin Thomas, president, INA.

Meanwhile, United Nurses Association (UNA), which threatened to launch a long-march from Cherthala to Thiruvananthapuram on Tuesday, has postponed the strike following the notification announced late on Monday. However, UNA has raised concerns about the KVM Hospital staff who were sacked. More than 113 nursing staff have been striking over the dismissal and the labour issues at the Cherthala hospital for almost 200 days in front of the hospital.

The management association is also displeased with the notification stating the wage revision is illogical. “The salary is to be paid with retrospective effect from November 2017 as per the notification. However, as per the rule, salary has to be paid with retrospective effect only if the last notification was issued five years ago. Only in November of 2018, the five-year term would be completed. Also, they are getting allowances which is absurd as allowances are given only in case of 'minimum wages’ which this is not. It is ‘fair wage’ and they are using the term minimum wage for it,” said Dr Muhammed Rashid, KPHA. The management association will convene on Thursday and then get legal guidance.

“What the government doesn’t understand is that we will have to increase the expenses of hospital service at a 50-70 per cent rate if the revised wage comes into effect. This will obviously trouble the patients. The burden on hospitals with 80 seats would be an extra 25 lakh every month while it would rise to Rs 2 crore in case of bigger hospitals,” said Rashid.