No let-up in nurses’ stir

KOCHI: The nurses’ strike at Lakeshore Hospital entered the 22nd day on    Sunday and there seems to be no let up in the situation with the agitators and the hospital management sticking to their stance. Though the United Nurses Association (UNA), which is spearheading the agitation, and the hospital management had struck a deal last month at the initiative of Labour Minister Shibu Baby John, both of them refused to toe the line.  
While the UNA blames the management for not implementing the conditions in the agreement, the management said the nurses were protesting without any  valid cause.
UNA president Jasmine Shah said they would not retract from the strike  unless their demands were met. “The management is not ready to follow    
the conditions stipulated in the agreement. They have not yet paid the   nurses the amount that has been agreed upon,” he said. Another demand put forward by the nurses was that the management should reinstate the six nurses who have been dismissed from service.
Stating that the Labour Department had not yet initiated any talks, Shah  said the UNA were willing to hold talks at any moment. “The management had not called us for talks yet. We do not want to continue with the strike. Once the demands are agreed upon, what is the need for protest?,” he asked. Refuting all charges, Lakeshore managing director Philip Augustine said the  nurses were protesting without any cause. “Their only demand is that the   trainees should be made permanent. But we cannot make them permanent. It is the discretionary power of the management whether to make a trainee  permanent or not. At the end of the training period, they are being relieved from duty,” he said.
Philip Augustine added that when the demand came up before the management,    the trainees were asked to file an application which would be considered favourably. Moreover, the union demands that the probationers should be made  permanent without the performance appraisal, which according to him was “not acceptable.”
“How can the probationers be made permanent without looking at the performance appraisal. In no place, a probationer will be made permanent without evaluating his performance,” Augustine said. He claimed that the wages as stipulated in the agreement was being deposited  in the bank account of the employees.
While the UNA claim that more than 500 nurses were on strike, the management said that only less than 200 were taking part in the strike. Shah said the nurses from other districts were pouring in to Lakeshore to expressing their solidarity to the strike.
However, Augustine said that more and more nurses were now ready to rejoin service.