Private nurses’ strike temporarily withdrawn in Kozhikode

The Kozhikode district committee of the United Nurses Association (UNA) has temporarily withdrawn the ongoing indefinite strike in private hospitals, seeking a better pay package and other benefits.

UNA Kozhikode district president Jishnu Ashok told The Hindu on Saturday (March 14) that the association members had joined duty in their respective hospitals. This comes a day after the Kerala High Court directed the UNA to defer the strike till March 19. Talks are expected to be held at the court’s mediation centre on March 17. “If there is no progress after the talks, the strike will continue,” Mr. Ashok added.

Around 1,500 nurses in various private hospitals in the district had been striking work since March 9, disrupting the functioning of many key departments such as critical care and emergency care. One of their main demands is to increase the basic pay to ₹40,000. The UNA had earlier launched a strike on March 4. Thereafter, only one-third of nursing staff had been reporting for work in some of the major hospitals. In recent days, even that number had come down. The striking nurses had been staging a ‘dharna’ outside the Kozhikode collectorate as well.

Meanwhile, the UNA has come to an agreement with the management of Iqraa International Hospital in the city, where the strike has been withdrawn.