‘Dial 108’ staff calls off strike
LUDHIANA/AMRITSAR : In a day of high drama, which initially saw 1,160 employees (drivers and emergency medical technicians or EMTs) of ‘Dial 108’ ambulance service extended their 12-hour stir on Wednesday to an indefinite strike on Thursday, the protest was finally called off by the evening. The Employees’ Association announced the decision after meeting the health department officials.
The striking employees were demanding regular payment of salary, eight-hour shifts, complete deposit of Employee Provident Fund (EPF) in their accounts and payment of pending increment for five years. They had extended the strike after the company handling the service, Ziqitza Healthcare Limited (ZHL), terminated 123 employees for being part of the stir on Wednesday evening.
“After the company reinstated these employees and a meeting was fixed with Varun Roojam, the managing director of Punjab Health Systems Corporation and the National Health Mission, we decided to end the strike,” said Vikram Singh Saini, chairman, Employees Association, 108 Punjab.
“Another meeting will take place on July 16, when our other demands will be discussed,” Saini added.
On other demands, Kuldeep Singh, a member of the association in Mohali, claimed, “We haven’t received our salary for the past three months. Whenever we get our salary we are paid half.”
Another demand of the association is not to promote an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) to an Ambulance Manager (AM). “When you promote an EMT as AM, he can’t attend any patients in case of emergency due to technical compulsions,” said Maninder Singh, president of the association in Mohali.
Project head of the firm, Saikat Mukherjee, said, “We are reinstating the employees on the condition that in future, there will be zero tolerance for employees who go on strike.”
PATIENTS RECOUNT INCONVENIENCE
Meanwhile, outstation patients and their relatives had a harrowing time in the absence of the government ambulance service with private ambulances charging exorbitant rates. “We have come from a remote village to get our son treated,” said Manjit Singh, of a Sangrur village.
For people needing to shift relatives to hospitals outside Ludhiana, the strike only added to the stress. “We have to shift our uncle to Patiala and the private ambulance is charging ₹3,000,” said Ramesh Singla, the relative of a patient.