''108'' ambulance workers call off strike

Kuldeep  Chauhan

Tribune News Service

Shimla, July 4

The '108' ambulance workers union on Wednesday called off their 10-day strike after the intervention of the state government.  

The workers decided to resume their duties as per their roster with immediate effect after GVK-EMRI company, which runs the service in the state, accepted most of the pending demands of the union, the officials said.

According to the official sources, the company agreed to take back all the employees who were suspended during the strike and those employees who were removed from the jobs earlier would be taken back by the company considering each case on merit.

The meeting,  convened by the additional chief secretary, health,  BK Aggarwal  was attended by union leaders led by Puran Chand and GVK-EMRI state head M Sukumar, labour commissioner and director, National Health Mission.

Director, NHM, Manmohan Singh said the company and union agreed to adhere to the eight-hour new duty roster from August 31 till then the present 12-hour duty roster would remain in force. The company would clear the pending dues by July 31 and take back all the employees suspended during the striking period, he added.

He said the employees who were suspended earlier would be considered on merit basis case by case in the presence of an official of the labour department. The issues of the wages would be sorted out in the presence of the respective CMOs and labour official, an official added.