POKHARA, Sept 11: Nepali doctors at Manipal Medical College on Sunday staged a strike demanding equal pay for equal work. The doctors stopped providing medical services as well as tutoring medical students demanding pay on par with Indian doctors.
The agitating doctors said they were compelled to resort to strike as their demand was not addressed even four years after it was first raised. [break]
They claim Indian doctors working at the hospital get three times the salary paid to Nepali doctors. The college was established 18 years ago. However, the hospital management has been turning a deaf ear to the demand saying the pay difference does not exist.
“We went on strike as the management has discriminated against Nepali doctors and staffers since the very beginning by not paying equal salary for the same work,” said Dr Krishna Koirala, Manipal unit chairman of All Nepal Progressive People´s Health Workers Association. “This (equal pay for equal work) is our only demand,” he added.
Workers´ unions have also expressed solidarity with the strike.
Dr Dipak Koirala of the hospital said the strike has, however, not hindered non-Nepali doctors and health workers from providing services. “The management has been discriminatory. Local administration gave us assurance to initiate dialogue, but did not follow through. And the Medical Council has not taken up the issue. This is why we are on strike,” he added.
Thirty-six Nepali doctors are on strike at the hospital. About three dozen Indian doctors are carrying out their duties.
Dr Birendra Yadav, chief of the college´s Human Resource Department (HRD), claimed the college has not discriminated against Nepali doctors. He added that the demand of Nepali doctors would be discussed at Kathmandu University (KU), Dhulikhel on Monday.
This very old dispute over pay difference between Nepali and non-Nepali doctors has now reached Nepal Medical Council (NMC).
Dr Yadav urged the agitating doctors to participate in the meeting that will be attended by NMC members and the college´s representatives.
The agitating doctors, however, claim the college management has spread baseless rumor about such a meeting to thwart the strike. They said the meeting that is to take place is a regular monthly meeting of KU and not a meeting called to resolve the dispute.
The college´s HRD had written a letter to Kaski District Administration Office (DAO) on Saturday asking it to send the Nepali doctors to Monday´s scheduled meeting at Dhulikhel, following which Kaski DAO sent a copy of the letter to the Nepali doctors late Saturday.