There seems to be no end in sight to the ongoing indefinite strike by junior nurses attached to government medical college hospitals in the State. The strike will enter its second week on Friday and the government is sitting on the demand for an increase in stipend, claims the Compulsory Nursing Service Staff Association.
Students who graduate from government nursing colleges and register with the Kerala Nurses and Midwives Council are appointed for a one-year period in government medical college hospitals. According to B.P. Arjun, president of the association, 375 nurses in various government medical college hospitals have been keeping off from work since August 21, seeking a rise in the wages.
He claimed that their salaries were revised in 2016 from ₹6,000 to ₹13,900. However, the staff nurses in government medical colleges, who were doing the same job, were getting ₹27,800. Mr. Arjun pointed out that the medical college hospital authorities had earlier threatened to cancel their registration and evict them from hostels. Later, final-year BSc (Nursing) students were asked to join duty to replace the striking nurses. Both these moves, however, did not make any headway.
In the meantime, 16 of their members tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 while discharging COVID-19 duty and 70 others were asked to go in quarantine. There had been no move for formal talks either. “We will continue the strike till our demand is met,” Mr. Arjun said.
