Ambulance Victoria managers and professionals are taking industrial action, including bans on releasing response time data.

Members of the Ambulance Managers and Professionals Association (AMPA) are responsible for managing ambulance dispatch systems and centres, co-ordinating emergency response to major events such as terror attacks and bushfires, and managing complex IT systems that ensure that there is an ambulance when you need one.

AMPA Director Ms Sharelle Herrington said senior paramedics and professionals have been left with no choice but to take protected industrial action.

“Our members are reluctant to take industrial action but there is no other option given the government has failed to offer a reasonable pay rise,” Ms Herrington said.

“Ambulance Victoria’s latest pay offer means senior paramedic managers will be earning almost $28,000 a year less than the clinical staff they manage.

“It effectively means paramedics in future will have to take a pay cut to rise through the ranks if they want a long term career.

“That’s going to make it hard for the government to fulfil a promise to hire an extra 450 paramedics as they no longer have a defined career path.”

Ms Herrington said the ambulance managers and professionals will be the driving force to implement the government’s $500-million dollar boost to ambulance services. “The people who determine the success of this are being treated with contempt,” she said.

Ms Herrington emphasised that the protected action won’t impact on public safety.

“Patient safety continues to be our first priority but we need to highlight to Ambulance Victoria, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the state government that ambulance managers have had enough and want their pay dispute resolved.

“Our members have been trying to negotiate a pay rise since September last year and we are calling on the government to end the Scrooge behaviour, and provide a reasonable pay increase before Christmas,’ Ms Herrington said.

Protected Industrial Actions include:

1. Indefinite bans on attending and/or participating in meetings (excluding meetings that the subject and content of which is emergency response times and ERP escalations).
2. Indefinite ban on making available reports: CEO Reports, Board Reports, Monthly Reports.
3. Indefinite ban on responding to Ministerial requests or enquiries from the Department of Health and Human Services unless that enquiry relates directly to a negotiation point of this Agreement.
4. Indefinite ban on higher duties.
5. Indefinite ban on undertaking two or more roles, defined by Position Description, simultaneously.
6. Indefinite bans on specified tasks and duties associated with the introduction of new technology.
7. Indefinite ban on travel outside ordinary hours and/or travel away from your principal worksite.
8. Indefinite ban on the drafting and finalisation of communications and correspondence (howsoever described) unless such communications and correspondence (howsoever described) is in uppercase, without spacing and punctuation and in red font.
9. Indefinite ban on members using their private vehicles to travel to locations which are not their usual place of work and/or using employee’s private vehicles to travel on Ambulance Victoria business. Members will use either an AV pool vehicle or taxi to undertake business travel.

Media contact: Siobhan Lyttle 0481 751 579