Wednesday 8 January 2014

'108' employees call off strike for now as mgmt agrees to some demands

In a major relief to the state government, the management and employees of the 108 ambulance service arrived at a shaky truce following talks held in the presence of labour department officials in Chennai on Wednesday evening. The employees subsequently called off the strike that was to begin across the state on Wednesday night.

GVK Emergency Management and Research Institute (EMRI) agreed to four of the 33 demands raised by employees union. GVK EMRIoperates 632 ambulances under the 108 service in the state with more than 2,500 employees.

"We have decided to call off the strike for the time being. We are hopeful the rest of the basic demands will be addressed in the next round of talks to be held next month," said 108 ambulance workers union state level organising secretary K Palkannan.

The demands agreed to by the management include three months of paid maternity leave for women staff, security and maintenance to ambulance drivers in case of road accidents, charting out a seniority-based transfer policy and re-employing staff dismissed for organising strikes in the past.

However, many employees said their major demands, including an eight-hour work shift and better salary and working conditions, were not addressed.

The 108 ambulance drivers announced the 24-hour-long strike on December 23 across the state and threatened to cripple the 108 emergency services by abstaining from duty. The last minute reconciliation talks held in the presence of R Ravichandran, assistant commissioner (in charge) of labour department, arrived at a consensus on four demands, according to which the management would prepare a detailed transfer list on the basis of nativity and service experience of employees based on which transfer orders will be issued in the future. All women employees of the union would be entitled to 12 weeks paid maternity leave and also the management would step in to support ambulance drivers by overseeing the maintenance cost of the vehicle and also permitting the driver to report for duty till the police issue was sorted out.

The GVK EMRI management representatives said they already had a maternity leave policy and the transfer list would be reconsidered now. "We have agreed on some aspects in the meeting held on Wednesday evening and all employees are back on duty," said B N Sridhar, chief operating officer, GVK EMRI 108 ambulance services.
http://www.dinamalar.com/news_detail.asp?id=891409
http://www.dinakaran.com/News_Detail.asp?Nid=74886
http://news.vikatan.com/article.php?module=news&aid=23164
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/108-employees-call-off-strike-for-now-as-mgmt-agrees-to-some-demands/articleshow/28573785.cms

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