Hyderabad : NIMS nurses again go on indefinite stir

Hyderabad : Around 350 permanent Nurses of NIMS (Nizam's Institute of Medical Sciences) boycotted duties on Tuesday, demanding pending payments and opted for an indefinite strike as the NIMS management failed to attend the redressal meeting with the Labour Commissioner on Monday. Earlier, the nurses staged a protest on October 7 this year over the same issue and the government pacified them with some promises.

The nurses felt bad that the promotion process was put on hold without any reasons. They demanded immediate payment of family planning amount (Rs 50,000), which was wrongly recovered from salaries, and immediate payment of Covid-19 incentives for April and May months.

"Government sanctioned Rs 100 cr and token amount is also released but nothing is being implemented on ground. Joint Commissioner assured to clear all demands by December 14. Previously they said would do so by November 25 but they did not keep the promises," said H Vijaya, Nurse, NIMS. "Actually 10% incentives are not being paid for two months, they were paid only for March but not April and May. In our own hospital, contract nurses were paid the incentives but not the permanent staff," she added.

"Family planning amount increment has not been paid and they also cut Rs 50,000 and they are not paying back. In 2014, we were supposed to get MACP (Modified Assured Career Progression) - in simple terms financial promotions - but they gave in 2019. We have lost at least Rs 2000 per month. There is no executive engineer, no proper HR management, no proper recruitment, none of the files is complete," said M Krishnaveni, another agitating nurse.