Give us permanent jobs, unpaid wages: Nurses

CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu recently celebrated Nurses Day but the MRB COVID-19 Nurses Association lament over the number of unaddressed grievances, including the demand for permanent appointment of nurses who served during the pandemic.

Unpaid maternity leaves and low wages are some of the other issues they raised.

Members of the association say that they have not been paid as per the regulations for minimum wages despite working for over 12 hours, especially in Primary Health Care. Nurses with over 8 years of work experience were promised permanent jobs by the government if they pass the MRB exam, but the government has not made any provision for the same.

“The State Health Department is increasing the beds in hospitals, but vacancies for nurses have not been created. This not only impacts nurses but also the public because it’d affect services. The promise of jobs to nurses who had served during the pandemic has not been fulfilled, because around 50% are not on duty yet,” says S Rajesh, secretary of the MRB COVID-19 Nurses Association.

On unpaid maternity leave, M Vijayalakshmi, president of the association clarifies, “Women nurses are allowed paid maternity leave but in TN, they’ve not been given salaries for the duration.”

She pointed to a Supreme Court order that the private nurses should be paid a minimum salary of Rs 20,000, and added: “If the hospital has over 200 beds, they should be paid Rs 50,000. But the State government has not yet implemented it.”