Ambulance Active Spring 2011Published By Countrywide Austral
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Ambulance Active is published by Countrywide Austral. Countrywide Austral adheres to stringent ethical advertising practices and any advertising inquiries should be directed to Countrywide Austral Level 2, 673 Bourke Street, Melbourne • GPO Box 2466, Melbourne 3001
Ph: (03) 9937 0200 Fax: (03) 9937 0201 • Email: admin@cwaustral.com.au
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<strong>Active</strong> Women<br />
Mums returning to work –<br />
what are the options?<br />
Donelle Carver, Paramedic Bsc, Vice President AEAWA<br />
Photo: St John <strong>Ambulance</strong> (WA)<br />
Many female paramedics are facing leaving the ambulance industry as un-family friendly rosters continue to disadvantage women returning to work after having a baby.<br />
“So, I’ve had my baby and I want to come back to work<br />
but I can’t work full time. What options are available to me?”<br />
I’d like a dollar for every time<br />
a member raises that question, as there<br />
is a growing number for nursing mothers<br />
wanting to return to work.<br />
It has also become problematic for most<br />
ambulance authorities finding positions for<br />
employees in a suitable situation for both<br />
employee and employer.<br />
In Western <strong>Austral</strong>ia, the recent increase<br />
in staff as part of the State Government’s<br />
funding towards ambulance services has<br />
seen a marked increase in the numbers of<br />
female officers joining the service.<br />
It would be almost a 50/50 split with<br />
male/female officers throughout the service<br />
with approximately 60 percent of the<br />
female workforce expected to take some<br />
form of maternity leave in the coming years.<br />
The <strong>Ambulance</strong> Employees Association<br />
WA prepared for the introduction of part<br />
time work in previous agreements with<br />
employers in the form of job share and<br />
casual position being made available. In the<br />
last agreement, we introduced part time but<br />
to this day management has discouraged<br />
this, preferring to corral officers into a job<br />
share arrangement or casual.<br />
This is basically to preserve the current<br />
format of the 224 and 4x4 roster patterns,<br />
and also simplify the rolled-in-rate<br />
agreement for pay.<br />
Many officers returning to work are not<br />
suited by the rotating roster pattern of<br />
full time or job share, and casual work is<br />
intermittent to say the least.<br />
With the current expansion of vehicles<br />
programmed in the current financial<br />
year, officers who are not returning from<br />
maternity leave are being denied job share<br />
positions, which are being reserved for<br />
mothers, but this has officers who have<br />
family responsibilities up in arms.<br />
Management and union are both<br />
seeking a fair and equitable resolution<br />
to this increasing problem and acknowledge<br />
that experienced and qualified paramedics<br />
are leaving the service due to the inability<br />
to work within a family friendly roster.<br />
The organisation is attempting to fast<br />
track paramedics with many direct entrants<br />
coming from other countries and interstate<br />
services, however this is a process<br />
that will take some years to keep the<br />
metropolitan and country fleet expanding<br />
at a manageable rate and accommodate<br />
officers wishing to continue in their<br />
chosen career.<br />
It is fair to say the challenge is ahead<br />
and we are actively looking at other state’s<br />
programs, especially Victoria, which recently<br />
introduced a handbook jointly produced<br />
by <strong>Ambulance</strong> Victoria members and<br />
management on policy for nursing mothers.<br />
We are actively working to keep WA<br />
members satisfied and the expansion so<br />
desperately needed moving forward.<br />
AMBULANCE ACTIVE SPRING 2011<br />
27