“They (the nurses) have called off their strike and have joined their duties,” said Dr. Randeep Guleria, director of AIIMS.
The Delhi Nurses Union AIIMS called off its strike Tuesday evening after a meeting with hospital administration, hours after the Delhi High Court prevented it from continuing its agitation.
On Monday, around 5,000 nurses from the Indian Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in New Delhi went on strike over their long-pending lawsuits, including those related to the Sixth Central Payments Commission (CPC).
“They (the nurses) have called off their strike and joined their duties,” said Dr. Randeep Guleria, director of AIIMS PTI.
The hospital administration, together with Health Ministry officials, held a meeting during which the union was assured that all “local issues” would be addressed immediately, while those related to the ministry would be dealt with separately as soon as possible. , sources aware of the development. said.
After the around two-hour meeting, the nurses union called off their strike, they said.
The union’s demands included the correction of an anomaly in the setting of the starting salary according to the 6th CPC, the correction of issues such as the abolition of the reservation on the basis of gender in the process of hiring nursing officers and contract appointments , the improvement of hospital facilities and the restructuring of staff. .
Hours earlier, the Delhi High Court prevented the nurses’ union from continuing its indefinite strike.
Judge Navin Chawla approved the order with a plea filed by AIIMS against the nurses’ strike.
The court prevented the nurses from going on strike until further orders after AIIMS said it was considering the union’s complaints.
It also issued a notice to the nurses union and listed the matter for its hearing in January 2021.
AIIMS told the court that in view of the prevailing COVID-19 pandemic, if the strike continued, the hospital would be stopped, which would not be in the public interest as it is also a COVID-19 facility.
After nurses went on strike, emergency patient care services, outpatient departments and operating rooms were cut down and several patients were sent to other hospitals with only resident physicians and members of the faculty and officers of the senior nursing managing the rest of the operations on Tuesday.
The Ministry of Health issued an order on Monday indicating that the breach of the “code of conduct”, established according to a ruling of the High Court of Delhi in 2002, according to which no employee, staff or teacher of AIIMS will stop working for no reason be treated as a crime under the Disaster Management Act.
In a video message Monday, Guleria called the strike “inappropriate and unfortunate” at the time of the COVID-19 pandemic and asked the nurses to stop their agitation and return to work.
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