Kerala High Court directs state govt to review minimum wage of nurses
Jan 23, 2023
Kochi (Kerala) [India], January 23 : Kerala High Court directed the State Government to review the minimum wages of nurses. The order is to be implemented within three months.
According to the High Court's direction, the State Government should ask for the opinions of nurses and hospital owners, and then the wages should be reviewed and decided.
The minimum wage announced by the government in 2018 needs to be reviewed. The government fixed the minimum wage for nurses in 2018 after widespread protests. At that time, the government had fixed the minimum wage at Rs 20,000 and the maximum at Rs 30,000 in hospitals with up to 50 beds. This amount was not acceptable to both the hospital management and nurses. Against this, the management and nurses approached the court with different petitions.
The nurses again came forward with the protest, pointing out that the current wage is not enough. The main demand in the petition is that the basic salary of a nurse in the government service is Rs 39,300 and the private sector nurses should also be raised to this figure.
In the petition filed by the management, it has been pointed out that the government fixed the minimum wages without consulting them. In this context, the court ordered to review the minimum wage within three months after consultation with both parties.
