Bishkek ambulance service workers demand salary increase

Employees of the Center for Emergency Medicine came to the Ministry of Health of Kyrgyzstan in Bishkek demanding an increase in wages.

They told that Alymkadyr Beishenaliev, when he was the minister, raised their salaries, but since then they have been getting less and less money.

«When I started working about three years ago, I received 25,000, then each time they paid me less and less even though I work the same number of hours all the time. Yesterday I was paid 11,000 soms,» a paramedic Aliya Aldeyeva told.

Doctor Eldar Abdyldaev noted that the ambulance staff do not understand the payroll system. «The management explains the wage reduction by vacations of some employees, their sick leaves, and that they are paid salaries at our expense. We cannot understand why this is happening,» he said.

The protest participants added that the management of the center, having learned about the protest, arranged an emergency meeting, to which they called all the employees, even those who are on vacation.