Strange as it may sound, employing an electrician or a plumber in capital city of Delhi, at a monthly salary of less than Rs 17,000 may invite legal proceedings against the employer. However, nurses are getting comparatively far lesser wages in most in the private hospitals and nursing homes there. What to speak of others, even top-notch hospitals there are paying less than half of what Delhi government is paying to its nurses. This speaks of the discrimination being meted out to them.
The minimum monthly wages payable to the skilled workers have been fixed at Rs 16,962 by the Delhi government. On the contrary, some of the top-rung corporate hospitals in the capital city if Delhi are not paying as much to the newly-recruited nurses in various hospitals, while the lower and middle-rung health providers are paying as meager as between Rs 12,000 and Rs 15,000 per month.
When we run a cursory look at the basic salary and perks drawn by a newly-recruited nurse in government hospitals in Delhi, we find that their monthly wages have been fixed at Rs 45,000 plus HRA, transport and dearness allowances, going up to anything between Rs 60,000 and Rs 70,000 a month.
Keeping in view the blatant discrimination being meted out to the nurses, a committee of experts, headed by the Director General of Health Services, was appointed under directions of the Supreme Court of India. The committee had in 2016 recommended that the hospitals with more than 200-bed capacity should pay to nurses wages at par with government hospitals and those having less than 50-bed capacity, a minimum monthly wages of Rs 20,000 for the newly-recruited nurses. In its order, the apex court had observed “We feel that the nurses who are working in private hospitals and nursing homes are not being treated fairly in terms of their working conditions and pay scales and other perks, etc.”, saying that the committee constituted for the purpose is authorized to look into the matter and file its report.
“Forget about the consolidated salary; these hospitals are not ready even to pay sufficient enough to commensurate to the basic salary of a government nurse. The high attrition rate in the private-run hospitals, tend to promote recruitment poorly-trained nurses, thus adversely impacting the established standards of nursing services, as they are in no hurry pay them reasonably well wages, which is why most of them are running private nursing colleges, for the student nurses provide them better services at cheaper rate” said Rince Joseph, national working president of United Nurses Association (UNA).
The nurses’ unions strongly feel that nurses deserved to be treated well and paid well because they are not only skilled workers but also professionals holding nursing degrees. For instance, it takes four years for a nurse to obtain a B.Sc. (nursing) degree securing a minimum of 50 percentile in Physics, Chemistry and Biology in Class XII. However, the diploma courses for nursing candidates are for three years, add the union office-bearers/ members.
On the other hand, the Association of Healthcare Providers (India), with 47 big hospital members (100 to 650 bed capacity), including some biggest corporate chains as its members, have filed a suit in Delhi high court to prevent/delay the implementation of the expert committee’s recommendations. The association is reported to have informed the court that its members were ready to pay their nurses monthly wages of Rs 20,000. According to UNA, some corporate hospitals, which were paying Rs 16,000 earlier, have raised it to Rs 19,800 after the Delhi government raised the minimum wages months ago, concurrently raising the hostel fees for the nurses, thus negating the raise in their salaries.
After issuing an order in June 2018, seeking implementation of the recommendations of the committee of experts within three months, the Delhi government has failed to pursue the matter, as per the UNA. The AHPI’s repeated attempts to get the Delhi government order stayed have failed while the Delhi high court has upheld the order. “We staged a peaceful protest at Jantar Mantar in Delhi to press the dispensation for the acceptance of our demands. Now we have no other choice but to step up the stir” signed off Joseph.