The All India Nurses Association met with Mumbai governor K Sankaranarayanan demanding for a committee to be set up to reassess the working conditions of the nurses in the city private hospitals.
Nearly a week after a nurse commited suicide at the Asian Heart Institute, Bandra-Kurla Complex, a six-member delegation of All India Nurses Association, today met with Mumbai governor K Sankaranarayanan demanding that a committee be set up to reassess the working conditions of the nurses in the city private hospitals.
Dr Abraham Mathai, president, All India Nurses Association said, "The government needs to come out with a policy on minimum wages and minimum hours of duty for nurses working in private hospitals. Our aim is to bring the problems of the nurses to the notice of the authorities." The association submitted demands regarding salary, better working conditions and elimination of the bond system.
"While the government protects the rights of several fraternities by enacting different labour legislations viz. Maharsahtra Private Security Guards Act, Beedi & Cigar Workers Act, there is no Act to protect nurses. The governor assured us that he will proactively look into the matter concerning nurses working in private hospitals,” said Mathai.
The nurses want salaries at par with government hospital nurses, and the bond system to be discontinued, in which their academic certificates are kept by the hospital authorities till the completion of their bond period. The association is also demanding formation of a separate nurses' forum in every private hospital.
The association also alleged that the experience certificates given to the nurses by the Asian Heart Institute are fake. "We have received complaints from several nurses that the signature of the nursing director of the hospital on the experience certificate are not the same as on the certificate received, prior to the recent strike. I too have observed this. It appears that someone may have tried to forge signatures on the certificates," said Mathai.
On October 19, more than 250 nurses from the Asian Heart Institute went on a flash strike following the suicide of a nurse, Beena Baby. Nurses claimed that Baby committed suicide after being harassed by the hospital authorities for misplacing a patient's ultrasound report. However, hospital authorities denied the allegations.
The nurses ended their strike after the hospital management agreed to their demand of revoking a two-year bond that the nurses had signed. The hospital has also said that nurses who have completed two years will be given experience certificates and those who resign before that will be given a letter stating that they have worked at the hospital.
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