THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Minimum Wages Committee on Thursday decided to submit a proposal hiking the wages of nurses and other staff working in private hospitals. The decision was taken despite dissent from the private hospital managements. The revised wages of nursing staff and other hospital staff had been finalised after grading the hospitals on the basis of their bed strength. Sources said following the decision, nurses working in private hospitals would be entitled to a hike ranging Rs 15,000 to Rs 17,000 across all categories. "Nurses are expected to get 150 per cent increase," said Jasminsha, leader of United Nurses Association.
Other hospital staffers are likely to get a hike of Rs 6000 to Rs 10,000 across the board. The proposal submitted by the committee would be published as a draft report. Subsequently, suggestions and complaints would be invited from the stake holding parties. Complaints and suggestions would then be heard by Minimum Wages Advisory Board. The government is likely to issue the final notification on hiking the wages within three to four months. While the government was firm on implementing the minimum wages announced for all categories of employees as decided by the meeting chaired by Chief Minister Pinaryi Vijayan in July, the private managements had remained non-committal citing huge financial burden.
While the hike announced for different categories range from 75 to 150 per cent, most hospital managements had stated that they could only afford 25 to 30 per cent hike. However, the government had made it clear that there was no question of reconsidering the agreement arrived at earlier. The government had reached an agreement with the private hospital management to implement Supreme Court directive of Rs 20,000 minimum salary for nurses in the state.
