Frustrated at the lack of progress in their wage negotiations, more than 200 Victorian ambulance paramedics blockaded the Department of Health on Monday 12 August. Spilling onto the road outside the building, paramedics spoke about an ambulance system in crisis and a government sitting on its hands.

Paramedics have been locked in a pay dispute with Ambulance Victoria and the Liberal state government for 12 months. The state secretary of the Ambulance Employees’ Association (AEA), Steve McGhie, reported that the government had made no offers in six months. The offer on the table is for a below-inflation 2.5 percent wage increase with productivity offsets including loss of some current allowances and sick leave entitlements. This has been rejected by the union “with a capital F” and is a long way short of the 30 percent increase over three years the union says is needed for Victorian paramedics to achieve pay parity with colleagues in other states.

Speaking to Red Flag, Simon, a paramedic working out of Pakenham, said he hoped this action would bring the dispute to a head. He thinks that paramedics have the backing of the community and called on Napthine “to take some responsibility for the process going for this long”. He said he thinks the government tries to take advantage of the fact that paramedics work with the public and “want to continue our work, want to help people … They think we’re not going to put up too much of a fight.”

In fact, paramedics have a history of fighting. Tom Gillies, a 30 year veteran of the ambulance service, told the crowd: “Since Jeff Kennett unleashed a whirlwind of change on Victoria … every EBA has become a pitched battle, and now we have to fight tooth and nail just to retain the conditions we have, let alone see any improvement.” He said that the situation for paramedics today had “come full circle to where we were 40 years ago, when a generation of ambulance officers felt they had no option left but to walk off the job … a strike that continued for six months”.

Gillies encouraged paramedics today to “stand strong against the government and the ambulance administration … we will not be bullied and will not back down”.

A recent survey found that 1500 Victorian ambulance paramedics are planning on leaving the job within five years if conditions aren’t improved.

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