TN HC stays strike call by ambulance workers on Deepavali eve

The Madras High Court ordered on Thursday an interim stay on the proposed 24-hour strike by '108' ambulance workers' union in Tamil Nadu on November 5-6 to press their demand for Deepavali festival bonus.

A division bench comprising Justice S Manikumar and Justice SM Subramonium Prasad gave the order on a public interest litigation filed by P Selvarajan who sought to declare the strike call as illegal.

The judges referred to a October 13, 2017 order of the high court restraining the workers from going on strike and warning that those who refuse to drive an ambulance would be penalised for gross contempt of the court.

The union has decided to go on strike for 24 hours from 8 pm on November 5 demanding a 20 per cent bonus for Deepavali, which falls on November 6 in Tamil Nadu.

The ambulance services in the state are run by GVK EMRI, a non-profit organisation, under the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) with the state-owned Tamil Nadu Health Systems Project.

The petitioner submitted that ambulance service has been declared as a public utility service under section 2(n) of the Industrial Disputes Act by the state government.

He said the high court in 2015 had observed that the strike by ambulance workers had become an annual event on the eve of Deepavali.