KOCHI: After a 22-day-long tussle, the nurses’ association on Sunday called off its strike at the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church Medical College (MOSCMC) Kolenchery. The management in-principle accepted the demands put forth by the AllIndia Nurses’ Welfare Association (AINWA), which spearheaded the strike, after mediation by V P Sajeendran MLA. The association called off the strike only after a written agreement was signed between the association and the management. According to the written agreement, a nurse under probation will get Rs 8,400 per month. Probation period may last from six months to two years, depending on various criteria. A staff nurse who get confirmation will get a remuneration of Rs 11,000 per month and an yearly increment of Rs 500 per month with a ceiling of Rs 15,000 on the monthly salary. The management also agreed to withdraw all cases against striking nurses. However, the nurses won’t be getting salary for the days they were on strike.“We will resume work from tomorrow onwards. Though both the sides had to compromise each other, about 80 per cent of our demands were accepted by the management,” said Sivaprasad Unni, unit secretary of the AINWA. However, the management has sought six months to implement the demand for a three-shift duty of eight hours each. The demand to revise the nurse-patient ratio was not accepted by the management, and hence the existing ratio will continue.“We have to incur an additional expenditure of Rs 4 crore now. The demands which were accepted in the agreement will come into effect from March onwards. The hospital will function from Monday ,” said Joy P Jacob, MOSCMC secretary. He also slammed the government for being inactive. “It seems like a punishment for the hospital managements which had implemented the Minimum Wages Act. Nobody accepted our argument that fair wages is the sole discretion of the management,” he said.
Comments
0 comment