Ambulance Victoria has clinched an in-principle agreement with the state’s paramedics for a 17% pay hike and smoother working conditions, concluding months of negotiations and a prolonged industrial dispute.
Since February 2023, the paramedics have been negotiating for an Enterprise Bargaining Agreement (EBA), ABC News reported.
Victoria’s ambulance service have been under severe strain due to an increase in emergency calls, which demanded them to stretch their work hours. They have also been complaining of burnouts and toxic workplace culture.
In July, the union passed a vote of no-confidence in Ambulance Victoria management, forcing chief executive Jane Miller to quit just 18 months into her term.
“Our paramedics want a career that is sustainable and a better work-life balance and this agreement delivers just that,” a government spokesperson said. “This is exactly what our paramedics have been calling for and we will always back them and the extraordinary work they do to provide Victorians with world-class care.”
Under the in-principle agreement signed with the union and Victorian government, Ambulance Victoria will earn a pay hike between 17% to 33% over four years, making them the highest paid in the country. Overall, the paramedics will get a 16.98% hike, which is a 20% jump for seniors, and further bonuses amounting to a 33% increase for Mobile Intensive Care Ambulance (MICA) paramedics. The rural Ambulance Community Officers can now earn an additional AU$5 per hour allowance for volunteering in their hometowns.
Victorian Ambulance Union secretary Danny Hill said under the EBA, “This deal rewards longer serving ambos, it makes our elite MICA paramedics the highest paid in Australia, it rewards Community Officers for the time they contribute to their community, and most of all it will help our members finish their shift on time and get home to their families.”
The deal also includes policy changes to support better working conditions, such as contacting the paramedics only for life-threatening emergencies after their shift ends or sending them on low-priority cases in the last hour of their shift.
Hill stated EBA will allow the service to focus on issues like ramping and response times. Ambulance ramping had worsened in Victoria since the COVID pandemic, with the regional areas suffering the most. Another issue was in regard to slow call-out times.
An additional 84 communications staff will assist with end-of-shift management and supporting crews on the road, The Age reported.
Other benefits include access to single days off, enhanced meal break provisions, improvements in health and safety measures, the right to disconnect, better resources for rural branches, leave for assisted reproductive treatment, and for organ and bone marrow donation.
Ambulance Victoria acting chief executive Danielle North told the staff, “It represents what we believe is the best possible outcome to transform AV into an improved, fit-for-purpose and financially sustainable organization.”
