Bengaluru: Nursing employees from various institutions that come under the medical education department held a protest at Bowring and Lady Curzon Hospital on Saturday, demanding better pay and benefits.
Clad in PPE suits, they sought a 50 per cent hike in basic salary, government insurance and cover under the Jyothi Sanjeevini Scheme. They also said that they should be brought under the New Pension Scheme.
“We are frontline workers in a pandemic. The government should treat us like government employees by providing better pay and insurance cover,” said a nurse at the demonstration.
The employees wore black armbands as a mark of protest. “We have been pleading for basic socio-economic demands for the past five years, but the government has been turning a blind eye to our problems. We will continue to wear black armbands till our demands are fulfilled,” said another nurse.
She added: “The government must bring us under the New Pension Scheme and treat us with some dignity as we have been working tirelessly during the pandemic.”
Nurses said though they and their family members were more vulnerable to Covid-19, the government had not offered any assurance on proper treatment. They claimed many staff members on Covid-19 duty contracted the virus but didn’t get access to good healthcare facilities.