154 nurses outsourced to IGIMS on indefinite strike

PATNA: All the 154 nurses, including 15 men, outsourced to

Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences

(IGIMS) went on an indefinite strike on Monday demanding salary hike and wage parity.

Around 45 of these nurses were deputed in special wards like ICUs and emergency. The hospital has 80 permanent nurses apart from the outsourced ones.

“We were supposed to get Rs38,200 from August last year. Some of us received the said amount in November, but we did not receive salary in December and January and are now being told that we will receive only Rs20, 000,” said Amita Kumari, one of the agitating nurses.

Most of the outsourced nurses claimed they did not paid and for the past two months and were demanding their salary from the M4 Solutions, the company which outsourced them to the IGIMS.

They also complained that nurses at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) get Rs38,200 per month, whereas they were being paid only Rs20,000 irrespective of their grade.

Abhishek Singh, a male attendant at cath lab, said it was only when they asked for the payment, they were told that their salary was only Rs20,000 and not Rs38,000 per month.

Jasmine

Mathew

, a type-B

nurse

working at the IGIMS for the past five months demanded equal pay for equal work.

Sharad Kumar, an executive of M4 Solutions, said Rs38,000 was released as salary following a health department notification issued on August 22, 2017. “The notification stated that type-A contractual nurses were to receive Rs38,200. We released the salary accordingly to nurses providing superspeciality care. But with no further notice from the health department, we withdrew it,” Sharad said.

IGIMS medical superintendent

Dr P K Sinha

said the salary payment was ordered as per the notification to hike the salary of nurses providing superspeciality care, but later the hospital’s finance department said the financial implication would be very high. The hospital administration says they would have to ask M4 Solutions to withdraw the nurses and give them a fresh lot if the strike persists as they cannot take chances with patient care.