Strike? what strike?

Sorry!

I forgot that I do have readers who aren't in the Ambulance Service of NSW.

Through our Union the ambos here in my state are attempting to gain a professional pay claim to recognise the substantial increase in the pharmacology, procedure and responsibility that is now just expected of the fully qualified Paramedic Officer here.

These increases have been slowly foisted upon the members and we just kept accepting them. Out of the twenty seven everyday pharmacology's used by the ASNSW (not the trial drugs for STEMI re-prefusion) I use twenty one of them but have not received any pay increase for these higher duties.

There are also matters about rostering, shift length, the removal of penalty rates that the city ambos get when we don't get to stop and eat uninterrupted because there are not enough ambos to cover the work load. Lastly there is also the issue of Ambulance Rescue being disbanded in the metropolitan regions and those duties given to the Fire Brigade or the Police Rescue units.

So the Ambulance membership of the union voted and decided that although the government regulator, the I.R.C. had given directions to both parties, that delays, and changes to the original changes without consultation from Management with the ambos was all just attempts to weaken our resolve and therefore we would strike!

That is not to say we would walk off the job, we would take the following actions;


Time critical 1a through to 2b cases only to be done.
Hospital to hospital transfers (low acuity to higher acuity care for patients benefit)
At the same time there will be paperwork bans in place.
This means NO debtor details are to be recorded. No patient names or addresses, simply record the treatment afforded the patient, and NOTHING else.
As a result of the paperwork bans this also includes car stats and any other electronically transmitted documentation.
Officers are requested NOT to use the OFF STRETCHER buttons on MDT’s, but to simply call clear at the completion of your case (after you've written all your paperwork up).
HSU will be asking PTO’s (Patient Transport Officers's) to assist Paramedics in their action by only transporting patients to hospital and not from hospital.

The day before the planned action Management placed a dispute with the I.R.C.

The IRC took the unprecedented steps of moving straight to orders (the severest finding against a union).

These orders were quite broad, restrictive and enforceable. For members knowledge the potential impact of ignoring such orders include;
Variance to our award, removal/variance to our current pay rates, cancelled registration of our Union, the imposition of financial penalties up to $10,000.00 for the first day and an additional $5,000.00 per day that such contravention continues.
Further, any person (member) may have been found to be in contempt of the Commission, which can result in a penalty of $5,500.00 and/or 6 months imprisonment.
(I have just copied from my union update email to make sure I have the facts right, I mean it's all a record of fact with the I.R.C. transcripts anyway).

Now the ambos are a very small part of the overall membership of the HSU and if they were to get de-registered who would represent them????

So I think I have got it right mostly,
Where do we go from here?
It's still in the air right now, ambos are pissed off and some are really militant.
Nobody becomes an ambo to get rich but you do have to live.


Be careful out there and I'll see you at the Big One.

Taz