KOCHI: Things have not changed much for Aswathy, 26, who was in her seventh month of pregnancy when she was pushed down and manhandled by miscreants in the first-ever nurses’ strike in Shanker’s Hospital, Kollam, in November last. She survived the assault and stress but has not still recovered from other health issues. Her miseries as a nurse still persist.“The management officials offered me a better salary while I was in the hospital under treatment. They promised me free medicines too, but the promises remained on paper. They paid me `3600 as salary for January 2012 without a salary slip. I told them that I will not accept it without a salary slip,” said Aswathy.Aswathy has a work experience of six years as a nursing staff. However, she was never allowed to demand a reasonable hike. Aswathy’s not a lone case of underpaid nurses working in private hospitals in the state. United Nurse’s Association (UNA), the strongest and consolidated trade union of nurses in the private hospitals, claims to have 1.6 lakh members in about 450 hospitals out of over 1000 in the state. “We never force them to join our union. They all came to us because they have been underpaid for several years,” says Jasmine Sha, state president of UNA.The Minimum Wages Act-2009 defines the minimum salary of a staff nurse, who works in a private hospitals, and it starts from Rs 8700, which rises according to the area in which the hospital is situated. However, neither the government nor the hospital managements had taken any initiative to implement it till a strike ws launched in Shanker’s Hospital. According to the salary slips shown by some staff nurses of Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church (MOSC) Medical College, Kolanchery, the net salary paid to them ranged from `1800 to ` 8500 till December 2011. Striking nurses, whether it is under UNA or Indian Registered Nurse’s Association (IRNA) or All India Nurses’ Welfare Association (AINWA), have raised a number of demands like better salary, comfortable three-shift duty time, identity card and reduced workload. Merely 20 pc of private hospitals in the state have adopted the Minimum Wages Act. The minimum wage does not come anywhere near the package a govt nurse with equal qualification and experience receives. Kerala Nursing Council (KNC), the state unit of Indian Nursing Council (INC), which is the registering authority of the nurses across the state, has also failed to ensure the minimum wages for nurses. “We have limitations. We can’t do anything on payment-related issues. It is for the state labour department to take care of these issues,” says Latha, registrar of KNC.
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