TN govt agrees to regularise 723 protesting nurses, consider their demands

Tamil Nadu government on Monday announced that it will consider the demands of the striking nurses and would take steps to immediately regularise 723 of them on seniority basis by Pongal (mid-January) 2026.

Also, a key demand to provide them maternity leave with pay will also be considered positively, state Health Minister Ma Subramanian said as the strike by the government nurses appointed on consolidated pay entered the fifth day today.

"Chief Minister M K Stalin has directed to consider the plea for maternity leave with pay and also other demands included in their ten-point charter," Subramanian told reporters here after holding parleys with representatives of the nurses' associations.

He assured that the government would take immediate steps to resolve their problems.

The nurses have been on strike since December 18 throughout the state and over 500 of them were arrested in Chennai on the third day of their agitation. Braving the nippy weather, some of them had brought their kids to the agitation to highlight their plight that their services were not duly recognised.

The nurses were appointed through the Tamil Nadu Medical Recruitment Board on consolidated pay of Rs 14,000 during the tenure of late Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, Subramanian said and claimed that after the DMK came to power (in 2021), their salary was revised to Rs 18,000 per month.

"Also, the government regularised the services of 3,614 nurses on contract, and in addition, 1,200 nurses have been posted in 11 government medical college hospitals. Steps are on to issue orders to regularise the service of 169 nurses," he said.

The minister claimed that the nurses were initially appointed on contract with a condition that their services would be regularised as and when vacancies arose. "Presently, over 8,000 nurses are on strike," he added.