Nurses stage protest

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

More than 100 nurses of Cikini private hospital held a demonstration on Friday, demanding the hospital management increase their salaries and take legal action against a corruption case in the hospital.

The demonstration, which proceeded for about two hours in front of the hospital, was held peacefully and did not disrupt hospital services or traffic into and out of the hospital.

The demonstrators, who were mostly women, asked the hospital management to increase nurses' salaries, health allowance and transportation allowance. They also asked the management to investigate the suspected misappropriation of Rp 2.5 billion of the employees' pension fund.

But Herika, the head of the hospital's human resources department, told The Jakarta Post by phone that not all the demonstrators were Cikini hospital nurses.

"Most of them are from the Indonesian Nurses Union (Serpindo). They asked the nurses here to join the demonstration," she said.

She added that the salaries of Cikini hospital nurses were actually quite good, but the management would, nevertheless, pay attention to their demands. "But we can't do it right away, as we have to discuss it first."