BENGALURU: Disappointed over not being paid their regular salaries by GVK EMRI for the past five months, ‘108’ ambulances in Karnataka may cease operations from today (May 6). Around 715 ambulances and approximately 3,500 employees across Karnataka are associated with the 108 ambulance associations’ service.
The association employees claimed they had only received the equivalent of two months’ salary over the past five months. The association operates approximately 90 ambulances in Bengaluru, with over 400 workers.
Paramashiva, vice president of Suvarna Karnataka Sangha, informed TNIE that the association will halt its services from 8 pm on Monday until they receive their regular salary, which ranges from Rs 29,000 to Rs 31,000 per month.
“We are receiving just over Rs 10,000 monthly. With each employee working a 12-hour shift, it is becoming increasingly difficult to sustain our livelihoods. Despite providing essential services for families, GVK EMRI is not addressing our basic needs,” Paramashiva said and claimed that salaries were deducted without any prior notification or information being provided.
Speaking to TNIE, Randeep D, Health Commissioner, said, “We have already issued Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) notice to the 108 Service Provider earlier itself so that 108 emergency ambulance services are not disrupted, at any point of time.”
To clarify on salaries, the corrected wages were released recently to 108 employees by the Service Provider upto month of Jan 2024. These corrected wages have been paid by the service provider to ensure that payment is as per applicable minimum wages only.
Also this is to ensure that annual payments for 108 ambulance service as a whole, is kept well within the MoU approved amount of Rs 162.40 crore for the financial year, the senior official added. It is clarified that for the FY 23-24, government has fully released the required Rs 162.40 crore to the service provider.
The service provider would be releasing the corrected wages for months of February and March 2024 in the next few days and report to government, Randeep added and highlighted that the due wages for April 2024 shall be paid out of the first quarter advance release made by the state for FY 2024-25.