HC upholds Delhi govt order enforcing min wage of Rs 20K for nurses in pvt hospitals

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday upheld the AAP government's direction to private hospitals and nursing homes of the city to pay minimum wages of Rs 20,000 to nurses working there as recommended by an expert panel set up by the central government.

The decision by Justice C Hari Shankar came while rejecting the challenge of an association representing private hospitals and nursing homes against the June 25 order of the Delhi government's Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) directing them to implement the expert panel's recommendation within three months.

The court said the time (of three months) for implementation or enforcement of the order would start from Wednesday.

It, however, gave the defaulting private hospitals a limited protection from cancellation of their registration by directing the DGHS, represented by Delhi government additional standing counsel Sanjoy Ghose, to first grant them an opportunity to present their views and defense.

The court asked DGHS to pass a speaking order dealing with all the defenses raised by the defaulting private entities before proceeding with cancellation of their registration.

The court also made it clear that the limited protection from cancellation of registration that it has given to the private entities "would not detract from enforcement" of the DGHS order and the recommendations of the expert panel.

With the directions, the court disposed of the plea by the Association of Healthcare Providers which had contended that the DGHS order directing them to comply with the expert panel's recommendation to pay minimum wage of Rs 20,000 to nurses would "render their business unviable".

The association had contended that the June 25 order under the garb of seeking compliance with the expert committee's recommendations, was in effect revising the minimum wages of the nurses employed in private hospitals and nursing homes.

The petition had said the Delhi government neither heard the private health care providers before taking the decision nor did it appreciate that their "business will be rendered unviable" if the wages of the nurses were increased according to the committee's recommendations.

The association has also claimed that the apex court in 2016 while directing setting up of the expert committee to look into the salary and working conditions of nurses had said that the panel's recommendations be adopted "only by way of a legislation".

Apart from recommending minimum wages of Rs 20,000 for the nurses, the panel had also suggested that working conditions such as leave, working hours, medical facilities, transportation and accommodation of the nurses should be on par with those working in government.