Ambulance drivers demand pay rise in Armenia
Ambulance drivers staged a protest in Yerevan on Tuesday, demanding wage increases. They complained about low salaries and heavy workloads.
Serzhik Gasparyan, a driver of the Substation 6 Ambulance Service, says he gets 11,700 drams per day, goes on shift once in three days, and his average monthly salary amounts to nearly 120,000 drams.
"We don't know how to feed our families. We work from morning till night, we can't even get a snack or go to the bathroom. During the day we don't even have time to rest,” he told reporters, adding they have also started responding to Covid-19-related calls.
Another driver says he lives alone, but he cannot cover his own expenses either.
According to the drivers, sometimes an ambulance vehicle can get damaged in traffic accidents due to high-speed driving, while the repair costs are covered by them.
The protesting drivers demanded a meeting with competent authorities.