Ambulance workers go on strike over salary hike, employment under NHM

Ghaziabad: Despite a symbolic strike for the last three days by ambulance workers, their demands have not been met yet. From Monday, ambulance workers stopped the ambulance service completely in the state, Ghaziabad. They demand that they be employed under the national health mission (NHM) and get a pay hike.
Due to the strike, patients and attendants had to face inconvenience on Monday. Throughout the day, calls kept coming from the call centre in Lucknow but only a handful of emergency calls were attended. On average about 300 calls are received in the district for ambulance services, including 100 emergency ones on a daily basis. Officials said there were no reports of any untoward incident as about 8-10 vehicles were plying in the district and attending to emergency calls.
As no middle ground could be reached, senior health officials warned the ambulance drivers of action under The Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) Act. The striking employees were told to hand over the keys of ambulances if they were not willing to ply vehicles. However, no driver had handed over the keys till the filing of this report.
The trouble started after the contract was given to a new company to operate ALS (Advanced Life Support) ambulances in the state. Ambulance drivers alleged that the new company is recruiting staff by replacing the old employees. To keep the old staff, the company is demanding a security deposit of Rs 20,000. Moreover, the salary has also been reduced. Due to this, all the ambulance drivers and medical technical assistants operating in the district have started an indefinite strike from Monday.