Why Kerala HC urged nurses to defer strike, recommended pay dispute to mediation

UNA-affiliated nurses began an indefinite strike on March 4, demanding that the monthly basic salary in private hospitals be increased to Rs 40,000.

This number is higher than the minimum wage for such nurses revised by the Kerala government earlier this month
The Kerala High Court last week urged the United Nurses Association (UNA) to defer its state-wide strike for increased pay and better working conditions until Thursday (March 19).

It also directed it to ensure its members do not abstain from work or cause any obstruction until then.

Judge Mohammed Niyas CP also referred the dispute between UNA and the Kerala Private Hospitals Association (KPHA) to mediation, asking both parties to appear before the Mediator, Kerala State Mediation and Conciliation Centre, on Tuesday (March 17).

The Mediator was asked to file a report on or before Thursday, when the court would resume hearing the petitions.

“Both sides shall refrain from doing any act which may aggravate or perpetuate the existing differences between them,” the court said.

The court issued an order following a petition by a group of private hospitals seeking a directive to restrain the striking nurses and invoke the Essential Services Maintenance Act, 1968 (ESMA), and the Kerala Essential Services Maintenance Act, 1994.

They had also requested the court to declare the continuation of the strike illegal under the Industrial Relations Code 2020.

UNA-affiliated nurses began an indefinite strike on March 4, demanding that the monthly basic salary in private hospitals be increased to Rs 40,000.

This number is higher than the minimum wage for nurses in private hospitals, Rs 30,880, which was revised by the Kerala government earlier this month.

This amount, once officially notified after sixty days, would be implemented retrospectively from October 1, 2022.

In contrast, a Grade II staff nurse appointed to government hospitals in Kerala earns between Rs 39,300 and Rs 83,000 monthly.

The striking nurses claimed that their salaries were last effectively revised in 2018 and have not kept pace with the rising costs.

A subsequent state government order in 2023 for a salary hike, following another series of UNA-led protests, was not implemented uniformly across private hospitals, they said.

The UNA told the High Court during the hearing that they had resolved the wage-related issues with all but 28 of the 960 KPHA hospitals.

According to the Central Bureau of Health Intelligence, Kerala had 329,492 registered nurses in 2022, up from 315,620 in 2021 and from just 77,596 in 2005.

Based on the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare 2018–19 data, the registered nurses and midwives (RN/RM) density per 10,000 population was 78.7 in Kerala compared to 16.1 at the national level.