PGI Chandigarh to release salary of nurses

Punjab: More than 500 new nurses, who were reported to have run into trouble with the administration at PGI Chandigarh after they changed their working hours (without the administration’s approval), have now been granted their salary.

The huge sigh of relief for the nurses comes amidst the ongoing negotiation between the administration and the nurses association over the issue.

However, a senior PGI official has implied that the entire issue is likely to be settled by next week before the labour commissioner- when both the parties will appear before the commissioner.

Express reported that for nurses, there are three shifts, each for a duration of eight hours. The nurses, however, had recently begun demanding that their shifts be changed to morning (6 hours), evening (6 hours) and night (12 hours) instead of the morning (8 hours), evening (8 hours) and night (8 hours) shifts.

Adding that a meeting was held between the nurses’ association and the PGI administration on Saturday, the official said, “ Several things were sorted out and it was also proposed that the three shifts will have revised working hours of 7, 7 and 10 respectively,” the official added.