Nurses may get 40-45% pay hike

KOCHI: The nurses in private hospitals will finally get a hike in their salaries. The proposal, mooted by the labour department, envisages 28% hike in the basic salary of all employees in this sector besides a special pay package for nurses based on qualification and the hospital's category.
It is estimated that the nurses would get a 40-45% increase in their wages and the average minimum salary of a nurse is expected to rise from Rs 7,310 to Rs 9,700.
The proposal would be presented at a meeting of the industries relations committee, to be held in Thiruvananthapuram on Thursday. The department hopes to reach a bilateral agreement at the meeting and avoid any further delay in finalizing the payment package, sources said.
"We can only propose, and we hope the issue will be settled at the meeting itself. If there are objections after the final notification is published in the gazette, the matter can be taken to court. We want to avoid such a situation, and so the managements' consent would be ensured at the meeting itself," said additional labour commissioner Tony Vincent. "The hike would definitely affect small-scale hospitals, but we want a better payment system for employees."
Though the committee, constituted by the labour department to revise the payment of private hospital employees, met several times, nothing concrete came out of them as the representatives of hospital managements and trade unions could not reach a consensus on the proposed revision. While the managements stuck to a 20% hike, union leaders demanded 40% increase in the minimum wages.
Meanwhile, the Kerala private hospitals association has called a meeting of its members to discuss the impending hike in salaries of employees. The meeting will be held in Kochi on Friday. "We cannot afford a huge hike because it would affect the hospital expenses," said Husain Koya Thangal, state general secretary of the association.