Male nurse ends 8-day strike over colleague's ouster

The eight-day-long hunger strike by Rakesh Verma, a male nurse at the Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences — after his colleague, Anil Lamba's services was terminated by the hospital — finally came to an end after the intervention by the Delhi Labour Minister Gopal Rai. Assurances by hospital authorities to the employees also led to the end of the strike.

Earlier, Verma had been only taking glucose through a cannula since the last few days, while some of his nursing colleagues sat next to him giving him support for his fight against the hospital. "There had been constant tension between the senior staff and the nurses due to various reasons, but the real shock was when during an argument they mentioned my caste (he is a scheduled caste on paper)," said Verma.

"They recently decided to terminate Lamba's services, who has been supporting me through this, on the grounds of contract, saying that he has not been performing well," he added. The employees had alleged that over 21 employees have been terminated in the last few years for ad hoc reasons. Giving examples, they alleged that a few others have been terminated for false reasons.

The strike led to a meeting between the Joint Labour Commissioner and the hospital employees leading to a common decision where HR manual will see some changes, which may take three to four months.