Kerala - Kannur   

‘Hospital staff denied minimum wages’

KANNUR: The minimum wages committee for the fixation and revision of wages in private hospitals held its sitting here on Tuesday.

Various labour-related issues and grievances including those concerning wages in the private hospitals, anomalies in the benefits under the ESI and Provident Fund, work load, discrimination at the workplace and denial of leave of absence came up before the panel chaired by P. Babu.

Workers in private hospitals and clinics in Kannur and Kasaragod, and representatives of institutions and trade unions were among those who participated in the sitting.

Representatives of pharmacists proposed division of labour among private pharmacists as superintendents, storekeepers and pharmacists. They also said their minimum wages had been fixed 12 years ago. They demanded over-time allowance, night duty allowance, risk allowance, house allowance and uniform and washing allowances. There were also complaints about hospital workers being put on duty for up to 15 hours without break. The panel was also told that no wage hike was given to the some private hospital workers who had been in service for 25 years and more.

Hospital representatives stressed the importance of mutual understanding between the hospital managements and the workers.

The chairman said the panel would submit its report to the government in six months. He said that statutory minimum wages were not being given in many institutions. Absence of a legislation for private hospital wages and job security was a constraint, he said adding that many of the owners of the private hospitals had no knowledge about any of the issues relating to the hospitals.

Committee members M.C. Josephine, P.B. Sudhan, K. Velayudhan, Mangalath Raghavan Nair, P. Prakash Babu, Vengad Vasudevan, P.V. Krishnankutty, E.K. Muhammad, K. Chandrahasa Shetty and S. Rajmohan were present at the sitting.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

‘Hospital staff denied minimum wages’
Left bid to appease Muslims: BJP
NDF: murders betray CPI(M) intolerance

Copyright © 2008, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu