E-Paper
Pending salaries: Kasturba nurses call off strike after assurance but docs threaten mass resignations
New Delhi:
New Delhi:
Agitating nursing staff of the North Delhi Municipal Corporation-run Kasturba Hospital on Tuesday decided to call off their protest over the non-payment of salaries for three months, after mayor Jai Prakash promised to disburse the dues within a week.
Resident doctors of the hospital also raised the issue of their pending salaries for two months and said they would consider mass resignations after July 10 if the dues were not cleared.
The nursing staff had staged a protest on Tuesday morning, assembling in the hospital premises and suspending work for two hours in the morning. They had been staging a similar protest for the last few days.
“We decided to call off our protest after assurance from the mayor to give us our pending salaries in a week. We will start our agitation if our demands are not met in the given time,” Alka Kaushik, a representative of Kasturba Hospital Nurses’ Union, said.
She said nurses had been working without salaries since April and risking their lives in the time of the coronavirus pandemic. They were unable to pay for even basic facilities due to their financial problem, she said.
“For how long we can keep working without salaries? The role of doctors and nurses along with paramedical staff becomes more important at a time when a pandemic is sweeping through the globe. They should pay us at the earliest,” Kaushik said.
The 450-bedded Kasturba Hospital is a maternity and child specialty hospital of the north corporation located near Jama Masjid.
The mayor said the nurses had ended their protest after assurances from the corporation.
“All employees are being paid in a phased manner and salaries to nurses will be released in a week’s time. Revenue collection of the civic body has been drastically hit due to Covid-19. We are arranging funds and releasing salaries of our employees,” Prakash said.
The mayor said every month, the corporation needs Rs 350 crore to pay its 58,000 employees.
The nurses’ union found support from the doctors’ body of the hospital, who are also demanding payment of their pending salaries for two months.
Dr Sunil Kumar, president of the Kasturba Hospital Resident Doctors Association, said salaries of May and June months are pending and should be cleared soon.
“A compensation of Rs 1 crore has been announced on the death of corona warriors, which includes doctors and nurses, then why do authorities not pay salaries to these corona warriors on time while they are alive and serving. Our salaries are pending for two months and we will consider tendering mass resignations after July 10 if our dues are not cleared,” Kumar said.
Last month, resident doctors of Hindu Rao and Kasturba hospitals had threatened mass resignations but took back their decision after the Supreme Court asked the civic body to pay their pending salaries.
