Thiruvananthapuram: The meeting of the minimum wages committee to discuss pay revision of private hospital staff including nurses failed to reach an agreement on Thursday. 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 Pinarayi Vijayan in July, the private managements remained non-committal citing huge financial burden.
The private hospital managements have been asked to submit their views in writing on proposals of trade unions in the sector on October 16. The minimum wages committee will meet again on October 19 to take a final decision. Representatives of trade unions and managements who are members of the committee attended the meeting chaired by labour commissioner and wages committee chairman K. Biju.
While the hike announced for different categories range from 75 to 150 percent, most hospitals say they can only afford 25 to 30 percent increase. However, the government has made it clear that there is no question of reconsidering the agreement arrived at earlier. Nurses’ organisations say there is nothing new in the stand of managements. Even in 2009 and 2013, they had taken a similar position but later yielded to government pressure. The government had reached an agreement with the private hospital management to implement Supreme Court directive of '20,000 minimum salary for nurses in the state. It was decided to pay '20,000 to nurses at hospitals with less than 50 beds as decided by the Industrial Relations Committee.
