Upset over the delay in payment of salaries and rollback of the 45% increment sanctioned during the previous government’s tenure, without a GO, employees of the 108 Arogya Kavacha service have threatened to strike work from Tuesday.
Around 715 ambulances and approximately 3,500 employees across Karnataka are associated with the 108 ambulance associations’ service.
In August 2022, the then government revised the salaries of the staff as per applicable minimum wages and also awarded an increment of 45%. However, the instructions to the service provider - GVK-EMRI, which is running the service for the State government - were issued orally, and a Government Order regarding the same was not issued.
Taking note of this, the Health Department, which has been releasing ₹162.40 crore annually to the service provider as per the MoU (₹40.60 crore every trimester), questioned GVK-EMRI about the additional payment without a written authorisation and asked them to recover the excess amount paid to the employees. Amidst this confusion, the salaries of the employees have been withheld since December.
“The service provider released salaries for December and January recently but what we have got is less than half of what we were getting monthly. The company is now recovering the 45% increment that was given to us till November 2023. Moreover, they have classified the wages on a zonal basis, which is further affecting our wages,” said Srishail Halloor, president of the Karnataka State 108 Arogya Kavacha Employees’ Association. He said a driver who was drawing ₹31,000 will now get only ₹ 13,000.
Minister blames previous govt.
Health Minister Dinesh Gundu Rao alleged that the mess was created during the previous government’s tenure. He said the department has been releasing the annual grants to the service provider as per the MoU.
“The issue is between the service provider and its employees. There is no dearth of funds, and we have not cut any grants. If they have paid in excess without any official authorisation, they have to take up wage correction and set right the mess,” he said.
ESMA notice
State Health Commissioner Randeep D. said, “We have already issued a notice under the Essential Services Maintenance Act to GVK-EMRI so that 108 emergency ambulance services are not disrupted.”
Clarifying on the issue of salaries, he said wage corrections for a few months are being undertaken by GVK-EMRI to align wages to not more than minimum wages and within the overall financial allocation of the government for the annual year as per the MoU.
“This is to ensure that annual payments for 108 ambulance service as a whole are kept well within the MoU approved amount of ₹ 162.40 crore for the financial year. We have released the full grants for 2023-2024 to GVK-EMRI,” he said.
He said he will meet the employees on Tuesday to hear them out and discuss their issues.
