The ongoing standoff between private hospital nurses and the management took a turn for the worse with a hospital in Thrissur terminating a nurse for taking part in the protest.
The United Nurses' Association which has been leading the protest of nurses in the state, on Tuesday, took out a march in Thrissur against the management of Aswini hospital for allegedly humiliating nurses.
The nurses affiliated to UNA and Indian Nurses Association have been protesting since June for better wages.
For the past four days, UNA has been protesting against the Aswini hospital for terminating a nurse and serving notice to another.
The Association alleged that the move of the hospital was in retaliation against the protest by the nurses.
The management served notices to two people but terminated only one.
"The nurse is a member of the association and the management was indulging in arm-twisting," the New Indian Express quotes UNA state secretary MV Sudheep as saying in its report.
Out of the total of 330 nurses who work in the hospitals, 290 nurses are UNA members.
Sudeep alleged that the management was planning to sack another 90 nurses who stepped in demanding the reinstatement of nurses who were terminated recently, the report says.
The UNA opposed the move for fear that such practices will be adopted by other hospitals in the future.
The UNA state secretary was quoted as saying that “The hospital managements are misusing the provision of appointing nurses as trainees. After a year, they are removed and reinstated as trainees only," the report says. The hospital management though has denied the allegations.
While UNA postponed the indefinite strike from July 17 following the Chief Minister’s invitation for talks, INA went ahead with the decision.
INA has members in more than 30 hospitals in the state and the strike has adversely affected the functioning of hospitals in the central and northern districts of the state.
The Chief Minister is scheduled to hold talks with association representatives on Thursday