After 38-hr suicide threat, hospital bows to nurses

ERNAKULAM: Following a threat to commit suicide by three nurses who spent 38 hours on its roof, Mar Baselious Medical Mission Hospital in Ernakulam district on Thursday night succumbed to its nurses’ demands for minimum wages.

For the past 117 days, 140 nurses at the hospital, run by Jacobite Church in Kothamangalam in the district, had been on indefinite strike over various demands, including minimum wages fixed by the government.

On Wednesday morning, nurses Anu, Priya and Vidhya went to the terrace of the five-storey building and threatened to jump to their death if their woes were not addressed. The move was prompted by a notice to Anu on attachment of her house after she defaulted on an education loan.

As the news of the three perched on the hospital roof spread, the management caved in. The three came down late Thursday night.

While Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, who belongs to Orthodox Church, remained quiet on the matter, it was Opposition leader V S Achuthanandan who led the talks to resolve it. The Orthodox Church has been at war with Jacobite Church over the control of several churches in Kerala.

Indian Nurses Association state secretary M Shihab said the hospital management was denying even minimum salary to 114 nurses who had completed one to four years’ service. “Nurses are exploited under the guise of bond and internship. They are paid only Rs 2,000 a month. In March, the management had signed a pact in the presence of revenue officials that a minimum Rs 7,600 would be paid to the nurses as starting salary. Besides, they were promised three shifts a day,” he said. The management has assured it will meet those promises now.