Odisha Nursing Staff To Continue Stir, Ceasework Likely From Tomorrow As Talks Fail

Bhubaneswar: The Odisha Nursing Employees’ Union (ONEA) will continue its agitation on Thursday and resort to ceasework from Friday as talks with the Health Department remained inconclusive on Wednesday.

The nursing staff will provide emergency services until September 26, after which they will join the strike, ONEA informed.

On Wednesday, patient care in non-emergency department was partially affected at government hospitals across the state as thousand of nurses went on a strike over their 10-point charter of demands. The nurses are demanding that the duration of their contractual service should be treated as a period of qualifying service for consideration of promotion, a modified assured career progression (MACP) and notional increments.

Following a high-level meeting between Health Secretary Aswathy S, director of nursing, Artabandhu Nayak, and office-bearers of ONEA, the latter was assured that there will be continuous engagement with them and issues will be considered sympathetically at appropriate times. The department requested the protesting staff, who provide essential service, to withdraw their strike and resuming duties immediately.

Secretary of ONEA, Ashwini Das, however, said that they will continue their agitation till the government forms a high-power committee and takes a favourable decision with regards to their demands.

Suchismita Dash, president of ONEA, added they have been getting nothing except for assurance since last month. “Only 10% of the services were hit on Wednesday. If 16,000 nursing officers go on complete ceasework, patient care services are likely to be affected badly,” she added.

Notably, Director of Nursing had asked heads of all the state-run healthcare facilities to take action against protesting nursing officers as ESMA (Essential Services Maintenance Act) was still in force.