Many ayurvedic hospitals in the state are on the brink of closure with the government insisting that their para-medical staff be given the same pay scale as prescribed for the allopathy sector. With the implementation of this directive, there might be blatant violation of the Supreme Court’s order that institutions that cannot pay minimum wages to staff have to be closed down.
Several ayurvedic hospitals in the state are not in a position to pay the prescribed minimum wages as the resources are limited. “There are around 1,000 ayurvedic hospitals in the state. 85 per cent of them are small units with five to 10 beds. There are hardly 10 institutions in the state which could be counted as big firms. In such a scenario, how can we pay such a huge salary to the staff,” asked Baby Krishnan, general secretary of Ayurveda Hospital Management Association (AHMA).
Sources said educational qualifications of para-medical staff in both the sectors are different. “Unlike courses like the GNM and BSC Nursing in the allopathy sector, which are of longer duration, the masseur course offered in the ayurveda sector is of six months and the qualification is only SSLC. Many allopathy hospitals also give additional training to their para-medical staff which seldom happens in ayurvedic hospitals,” Baby said. To top it all, there is a huge divide in the case of revenue garnered in both sectors. “Unlike allopathy, the revenue generation in ayurveda is seasonal. During lean period, it is a strenuous task to pay such huge salary to the staff,” he pointed out.
The AHMA has already challenged the government order in the court demanding separate minimum wages act for the ayurveda sector. P G Thomas, Labour Commissioner, said that such an issue had not come to his notice. “I will examine the matter at the earliest,” he said. A minimum wages committee for the ayurveda sector was constituted in 2010 to look into the issue.
Baby said that they could not agree to their suggestions as the committee paid little attention to their demands.
“Hence we filed a petition against it in the High Court, to which the court issued a stay order,” he said. The dormant issue cropped up again when the non-payment of minimum salary to nurses came to the fore recently. “Even without constituting a minimum wages panel, they set up an Industrial Relations Committee, which did not have any representation from ayurveda sector. Based on its suggestions, the new GO was issued,” he said.
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