Nurses of Lady Hardinge Medical College On Strike Demanding Reinstatement of Terminated Contract Staff Nurses

The contract staff nurses of Lady Hardinge Medical College, New Delhi are on strike for the last 12 days demanding the reinstatement of 36 terminated nurses and payment of pending salaries.

The LHMC is a central government institution, and there are 236 contract staff nurses working at the LHMC, most of whom have worked there for about two years. Their salary is not at par with the regular employees of LHMC, and even maternity benefits are denied to them.

On 20 November 2017, the Lady Hardinge administration terminated the services of 36 contract staff nurses, in the pretext that 36 people have joined as regular candidates.

Even as 36 nurses have been terminated, those continuing to work have not been paid salaries for the last three months.

The contract staff nurses have been sitting on an indefinite 'Dawn to Dusk Dharna' in front of the hospital since 20 November, protesting against the unilateral decision of the hospital administration.

Unions such as the Delhi Hospitals Contractual Workers Union and the United Nurses Association are involved in the struggle, while the Centre of Indian Trade Union (CITU) has extended support to the agitation.

On Friday, 1 December, the nurses marched to the Nirman Bhavan in Delhi, where the office of the Union Ministry of Health is located. But no discussion with the Minister took place, and the strike is continuing.

The functioning of the hospital has been seriously affected by the strike by the contract staff nurses, with only minimal services being maintained. With the hospital authorities refusing to accept the demands of the striking nurses, the permanent staff nurses have been severely overburdened.

The hospital authorities threatened that the Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) would be used against the striking nurses. Union sources, however, pointed out that only the government can use ESMA, and that the hospital has no authority to invoke the Act.

In a letter sent to JP Nadda, the Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare, the CITU Delhi State Secretary Anurag Saxena highlighted a ruling by the Delhi High Court dated 6 November 2013, in a case titled Sonia Gandhi and others vs. Government of NCT of Delhi.

In the ruling, the High Court asked the Delhi government to carry out a manpower requirement assessment in all its departments keeping in view the then population of Delhi, and to adopt a one-time policy of regularisation for contractual employees. The manpower requirement of hospitals in Delhi doesn't fulfil the Medical Council of India's guideline of a 1:3 ratio between the number of beds and the number of staff nurses. While the Delhi government is reportedly in the process of implementing such a policy in the hospitals run by it, the nurses are demanding that such a policy should be adopted at the hospitals in Delhi which are run by the central government as well.

The CITU also noted a 2015 directive of the Central Administrative Tribunal's Principal Bench in New Delhi which said that "in the event of available vacancies in a particular unit/hospital, the respondents would explore the possibility of engaging the applicants herein for their contractual appointment in the unit/hospital where vacancies remain unfulfilled". There are presently vacancies which remain unfilled in the other hospitals run by the central government, the CITU said.

If the terminated nurses cannot be reinstated in LHMC itself, they could be placed in other Delhi hospitals of the central government where there are unfilled vacancies, said the letter.

The nurses are demanding that the principle of "same work, same pay" for both contractual and regular staff should be implemented, and all benefits including maternity benefits should be made available to the contract staff. A one-time policy of regularisation should be adopted for contractual staff nurses in keeping with the Delhi High Court order.