Employees attached to the free hearse service and mother-child drop back service, staged a demonstration on the campus of the Directorate of Medical and Rural Health Services on Tuesday to put forward their demands .
About 680 employees, including drivers, call centre staff and district programme managers, were working with the free hearse service and 102 mother-child drop back service in the State.
Rajesh Pushparaj, general secretary of the employees association, said, the Indian Red Cross Society were managing the programmes so far but the employees were shifted to GVK-EMRI management, which operates the 108 ambulance network, without prior information. “Some of the payments such as arrears and increments are pending for us.
In this scenario, we have been shifted to a different management. We are demanding job security as GVK-EMRI will have its own terms and conditions. . Many of us have been working as drivers for 10 years. So, we need continuity of service without affecting our seniority,” he said.
No hike
The association said that many drivers, who were transferred to Chennai during the COVID-19 pandemic, were struggling without being transferred to their original districts.
Drivers of ‘Janani Shishu Suraksha Karyakaram’ (JSSK) were yet to receive their long-pending monetary benefits.
They said their salaries were not increased after 2018 and demanded regularisation of services for employees who have been working for more than 10 years.
