Gandhi striking nurses to study state’s pay hike

Hyderabad: Confusion surrounds the return to duties by outsourced nursing staff on strike at Gandhi hospital even as they have allegedly said they will re-join duties from Thursday.

The Class IV workers, engaged in sanitation, para-medical and security duties, as well as the nursing staff, on Wednesday met with the director of medical education to discuss their demands.

Gandhi hospital’s nurses under contract have been on strike since Friday and were joined by the Class IV workers in the stir on Tuesday. All of them are demanding better wages and absorption into government service.

On Wednesday, contract outsourced Class IV workers were granted a daily incentive of Rs 300 till the Covid-19 crisis gets over in addition to 15 days of leave for staying in isolation as per existing protocols for those working in a Covid-19 patient care environment.

These incentives will apply to all such workers at other government hospitals involved in Covid-19 patient care.

Following this, the employees agreed to get back to work, M. Narisimha, of the Telangana state medical contract employees and workers union, said. However, the outsourced nursing staff said that they have not given any assurance to the government on re-joining duties on Thursday.

They said they will discuss the offer from the government to increase their salaries to Rs 25100, plus a Covid-19 daily incentive of Rs 500 as well monthly 15 days of isolation.

One of the protesting nurses, Dharani Reddy, said they will continue with their protest until their demand for taking them onto government rolls is met. “All 220 of us plan to continue our protest,” Dharani Reddy said.