T’puram: United Nurses Association (UNA) has expressed dissatisfaction with the state govt’s proposed revision of salaries of nurses and other staff at private hospitals, in a draft notification.Demanding that the minimum salary be fixed at Rs 40,000, UNA has announced an indefinite strike fromMarch 9. The notification has proposed a minimum salary ranging from Rs 25,450 to Rs 30,880 for staff nurses.Labour minister V Sivankutty termed the proposed strike political and alleged that Congress was behind it. Rejecting the allegation, UNA state secretary Jasmine Shah said the minister’s statement was misleading. He said leaders of CPM and other parties participated in UNA protests during the previous UDF govt. Shah also alleged that the state govt was siding with private hospital managements and fixed the minimum salary to appease them. Meanwhile, the draft notification states that nurse managers (MSc with five years’ experience or BSc with 10 years’ experience), nurse directors and nurse officers will receive salaries between Rs 27,330 and Rs 33,080. Nursing superintendents (BSc with five years’ experience) and matrons (BSc/GNM with 10 years’ experience) will receive between Rs 27,170 and Rs 32,870. Assistant nursing superintendents or deputy nursing superintendents (BSc with five years’ experience or GNM with 10 years’ experience) will receive between Rs 26,770 and Rs 32,320. Head nurses, clinical supervisors, sisters in-charge, group captains and leaders will receive salaries between Rs 26,690 and Rs 32,290. Tutor nurses and clinical instructors, including EMT and ambulance staff, will receive between Rs 25,930 and Rs 31,380. Staff nurses with GNM/BSc qualifications, registered ANM (auxiliary nurse midwives) special grade nurses with 10 years’ experience and ambulance nurses will receive between Rs 25,450 and Rs 30,800. ANM grade-I with five years’ experience will receive salaries between Rs 24,650 and Rs 29,850, while ANM grade-II nurses will receive between Rs 24,290 and Rs 29,390. Shah said the draft notification reflected only a marginal increase of around Rs 3,000 compared to the 2018 revision. He said the protest would be intensified in front of private hospitals from March 9 and warned that strong agitation would be launched against hospital managements that do not provide a basic salary of Rs 40,000. He also demanded that private hospitals disclose their balance sheets and that the govt standardize treatment charges across the sector. Shah said 13 private hospital managements agreed to provide a salary of Rs 40,000 and added that hospitals offering that amount would be exempted from the protest once a formal agreement is signed and salaries are credited to nurses’ accounts. UNA also alleged that some hospitals were employing nursing students amid the protest and warned that legal action would be taken.
