KOCHI: The nurses at the Lakeshore hospital have come out strongly against the Labour Department for including the hospital in the list of hospitals that provide minimum wages. The Labour Department had evaluated the systems in place at Lakeshore Hospital in December just after the nurses’ stir at Amrita hospital. “The claim of the hospital that it provides minimum wages is untrue. Nurses who have served at the hospital for more than seven years are paid just Rs 7,000. Many work for Rs 1,000 and Rs 2,000,” said United Nurses Association (UNA) state president Jasmine Shah.The nurses alleged that the hospital was underpaying them by positioning them under various designations. “There are several categories of nurses here. The nurses are recruited as observers or volunteers and remain so for over six months. Earlier, the nurses were not paid during this period, but now they are being paid Rs 1,000. After this, there is a training period when they are paid Rs 4,000. Further tests are held before they are recruited as nurses. It is only after this that the pay is increased to Rs 7,133. This too, only since lastJuly. When all this remains a blatant violation of labour laws, why is the Labour Department failing to take action against the hospital,” asked UNA district vice-president Muhammad Unais. The agitating nurses have also challenged the minimum wages stipulated by the Labour Department. “The wages were determined without studying the conditions of the nurses. Even attenders, with qualification of standard 10, are paid more. The wages must be based on the hospital’s turnover. Lakeshore has a turnover of Rs 100 crore. Doctors and HR staff are paid lakhs. Why should the nurses, who have a burden of over Rs 3-6 lakh as education loans, be paid so low,” said UNA Lakeshore branch secretary Ramya Rani.Meanwhile, the hospital has countered the allegations of low pay. “The trainee nurses are being appointed only because we are pressurized from several sides to appoint them so that it would give them some experience. We have only 18 such trainee nurses. But, after the Labour Department recommended that they should be given minimum wages, we have decided not to have any more trainees ,” said the general manager of Lakeshore Hospital K J Xavier.
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