According to media reports around 5,000 nurses of AIIMS declared the strike raising pending demands such as Sixth Central Pay Commission.
The Union health ministry has warned of action and said non-compliance of the "code of conduct", laid down as per a Delhi High Court judgment, will be treated as an offence under the Disaster Management Act.
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What are the demands?
The nurses' union's demands the redressal of several issues such as
- anomaly in the fixation of the initial pay as per the Sixth Central Pay Commission (CPC),
- the abolishment of gender-based reservation in the recruiting process of nursing officers and contractual appointments
- enhancement of hospital accommodation and cadre restructuring
"Our Union is ready for talks with the administration. We are feeling bad for patients but we're helpless as our demands haven't been met. We had given notice for strike a month ago but even then the administration didn't listen to our demands," said Harsh Kajla, President, AIIMS Nurses Union, Delhi in a tweet by ANI. The union is also against the conversion of employment role from permanent to contract basis.
" For the last six months, we have been requesting the Central government to consider our demands. Our demands were even agreed by Union Health Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan in the meeting held last year," said Kajla in a report by ANI.
Previous Meetings
A meeting was held on December 8 in which officers of the health ministry, the department of expenditure of the finance ministry, and the AIIMS administration had joined. A report by PTI says that the Union was told their interpretation on pay fixation under the sixth CPC is beyond the provisions in the gazette notification dated August 29, 2008, of the department of expenditure on Central Civil Services (Revised Pay) Rules, 2008. .
Another meeting was held on December 10 which was attended by officers from the health ministry, AIIMS administration, and by two representatives of the union. Attempts were made to convince the Union but the meeting remained inconclusive.
The strike has severely affected patient care and in a video message, Guleria called it "inappropriate and unfortunate" especially in the time of a pandemic. He also said that almost all of the 23 demands by the Union has been fulfilled by the AIIMS administration and government.
"We are currently working on the 7th CPC which is being implemented and multiple meetings have been held with the nurses union, with the representatives not only by the AIIMS administration but also by the economic advisor in Ministry of Health and Family Welfare," said Guleria in a report by ANI.