Kerala’s General Education and Labour Minister, V. Sivankutty, has instructed the issuance of a draft notification to revise the minimum wages for employees in the private hospital sector in the state. This decision was made during a meeting of the Private Hospital Industrial Relations Committee in Thiruvananthapuram. The notification will be issued in the official Gazette within a month under Section 5(1)(b) of the Minimum Wages Act, 1948, due to the lack of consensus from discussions held by the Minimum Wages Committee.
A committee established by the government in October 2023 to review wages conducted evidence collection across all 14 districts and engaged in multiple discussions. However, disagreements arose primarily due to the uncooperative stance of management representatives. The Minister emphasized the inadequacy of current wages, which are based on a 2013 notification, for workers to meet their families’ needs in the present living conditions. He stressed that it is the government’s duty to ensure fair wages for workers and that discussions cannot be prolonged indefinitely.
Sivankutty highlighted that most private hospitals still follow the 2013 notification for wage payments. He mentioned that trade unions have accepted a proposed 60% wage increase, formulated at the departmental level based on the 2013 notification. The Minister assured that this proposal would not impose any additional financial burden on hospitals. He also mentioned that the government would consider the demands put forth by various organizations, including the Indian Association of Physiotherapists, Kerala Private Pharmacists Association, Indian Society of Radiographers and Technologists, and the Indian Speech Language and Hearing Association, while issuing the draft notification.
The meeting, which was attended by Additional Labour Commissioner K. M. Sunil, members of the Private Hospital Minimum Wages Committee, and other officials, aimed to address the wage concerns in the private hospital sector.
