Bhopal: The ball regarding settlement of dispute of 108 ambulance services with employees is in the court of labour commissioner who will take final decision on April 11. The 108 ambulance service operator Ziqitza Healthcare Limited (ZHL) and its employees put forth their arguments.
The dispute snowballed into major controversy threatening to derail ambulance services in the state. It is being contested over compensation of around 2,800 employees (ambulance pilots and technicians). Labour commissioner would decide whether ‘waiting time’ of a ZHL employee (to attend emergency distress) is counted within or outside working hours. The court hearing is on April 11.
Citing the Motor Transport Workers Act, 1961 over calculation of ‘working’ hours, ZHL representative Jitendra Sharma, interacting with media on Thursday, said, “No employees work schedule is spread-over more than twelve hours. ZHL policy is in accordance with the law.”
“Average three to four hours are on-call for ambulance. The remainder of the time, an employee waits in the comfort of rooms provided by ZHL. We do not consider waiting time as ‘active duty’,” said Sharma. Protesting ZHL employees allege the method of counting ‘duty’ hours makes them serve additional hours, for which they demand additional compensation.
ZHL claims the same mechanism was followed by the previous operator. ZHL took over ambulance service in MP some 16 months ago and 60% of the fleet is still over five years old. On PPP-mode ZHL operations are funded on tender rates by the government. Number of basic changes like linking data and other services are yet to be completed by ZHL. Delay in payments has also been cited by ZHL employees.
‘Monitoring system of 108 will be developed at district level’
NHM MP mission director S Viswanathan said, “Monitoring system of 108 will be developed at district level. It will be decentralized. Issue of ZHL employees working more than 8 hours would be taken up by labour commissioner. More than 500 vehicles were on the road at all times, as per NHM monitoring. Proper systems would be followed and we don’t want to have any person showing muscle.”