Ongole: 108 services contract employees to go on strike after Jan 15

Ongole (Prakasam District): 108 Services Contract Employees Union Prakasam district unit members organised a rally and staged a protest demanding the government to resolve their issues pending for a long time and take action on the service provider, who is violating the norms of the contract. They stated that they are ready to go on strike after January 15, if their demands are not met.

Speaking at the protest at the district Collectorate here on Wednesday, district honorary president K Subbarao, president T Srinivasa Rao and general secretary V Gali Reddy alleged that the service provider, Aurobindo Emergency Medical Services, is plying 350 vehicles in the fleet of 108 ambulances without fitness certificates and insurances against road safety rules. They said that most of the vehicles have overrun tyres, require emergency repairs, and are short of medical indent like injections, syringes, dressing materials etc. They also said that the provider is charging the employees for training and repairs when the vehicle is damaged and encouraging groups between employees to remove the seniors with more salary in the name of cost-cutting.

The 108 Services Contract employees demanded Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy to fulfil his promise of including them in AP Outsourcing Corporation, giving weightage to the 108 employees in recruitment for government jobs, and seeing the AEMS reappoint the employees it removed from service. They also demanded the AEMS to bear the company's contribution of EPFO and ESI without cutting the salary of the staff and implementing eight-hour work shifts. They also demanded the company to announce Rs 30,000 as salary to the EMTs and Rs 28,000 to the pilots, with a hike of 20 per cent every year.

The 108 services contract employees announced that they may go on strike any moment after January 15, as the AEMS and government didn't respond to their strike notice served on December 14, 2022, after protests and representations to the officials and public representatives. They said that the government and AEMS should take responsibility if any unforeseen inconvenience to the public arises due to their strike after January 15.