Ambulance Active Spring 2011Published By Countrywide Austral
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
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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WA’s mining boom<br />
Consuming the workforce and paramedics<br />
John Thomas, President <strong>Ambulance</strong> Employees Association (WA), Paramedic BSc ASM<br />
Every time you turn on the<br />
television there is some form of advertising<br />
for the mining industry, and nowhere is<br />
more prevalent than in Western <strong>Austral</strong>ia’s<br />
booming north-west region.<br />
With the current environment attracting<br />
more than 50 paramedics a year out of<br />
the workforce for industrial contracts,<br />
and the prediction that this number will<br />
almost double over the next few years, the<br />
ambulance service is facing a dilemma.<br />
A State Government announcement<br />
about the upcoming Wheatstone Project,<br />
located off the Pilbara coast, is rumoured<br />
to attract a further 26 paramedics.<br />
Paramedic resources in the metropolitan<br />
region are often strained by commitments<br />
to the mining sector, which are currently<br />
addressed through overtime coverage<br />
and crew shortages. This most likely will<br />
be compounded by the mining industry’s<br />
unquenchable thirst for onsite paramedics.<br />
The <strong>Ambulance</strong> Service WA has begun<br />
looking to supplement its obligation to<br />
the mining sector by offering positions to<br />
suitably qualified paramedics from other<br />
services within <strong>Austral</strong>ia.<br />
The WA mining boom is causing strain on metropolitan paramedic resources.<br />
This has been a necessary option due to<br />
the expansion commitment given for rural<br />
and remote Western <strong>Austral</strong>ia to increase<br />
the current paramedics by almost 50<br />
officers into rural and remote areas over the<br />
next three years.<br />
It is a challenge that both management<br />
and union face to enable the current service<br />
to grow to meet increasing workloads<br />
and also service the mining industry that<br />
enables our members to diversify their work<br />
and lifestyle for a rewarding remuneration.<br />
The unknown quantity is the expansion<br />
rumoured in the mining industry alone<br />
within Western <strong>Austral</strong>ia will surely see the<br />
current commitment double in the next<br />
five years, along with rural townships that<br />
will also require increased resources.<br />
The challenge will surely be to produce<br />
enough paramedics in the coming years<br />
to supplement the increasing ambulance<br />
requirement and also satisfy an everexpanding<br />
mining industry that has an<br />
endless thirst for paramedics.<br />
In Brief<br />
Fatigue Risk<br />
Management Policy<br />
Queensland<br />
<strong>Ambulance</strong> Service<br />
(QAS) is preparing<br />
a Fatigue Risk<br />
Management Policy<br />
in consultation with<br />
United Voice (QLD).<br />
Management of fatigue is paramount<br />
to the welfare of United Voice members,<br />
and to the safe delivery of services to the<br />
community. The policy is a significant move<br />
forward and United Voice has endorsed the<br />
process and the implementation of a trial.<br />
The development of a policy was<br />
directed by the Queensland Industrial<br />
Relations Committee, and is due for<br />
completion by July 2012. Members are<br />
encouraged to raise any areas of concern<br />
to enable United Voice to effectively review<br />
and amend the policy.<br />
Communications<br />
Centre roster<br />
Health And Community Services Union<br />
Tasmania (HACSU) is proposing changes<br />
to the communications centre roster<br />
that would see the introduction of a 4x5<br />
roster rather that the standard 4x4 service<br />
roster. The proposal also includes a new<br />
classification structure with new roles.<br />
Members have recently rejected this<br />
management proposal, partially because<br />
the information provided by <strong>Ambulance</strong><br />
Tasmania was incomplete and because of<br />
the significant work/life balance that would<br />
affect members who were subject to a<br />
significant roster<br />
change. Members<br />
stand to lose<br />
significant salary<br />
as a result of the<br />
change to the<br />
proposed roster.<br />
TWU Survey<br />
The Trade<br />
Workers Union<br />
(TWU) ACT has<br />
completed the<br />
2011 <strong>Ambulance</strong> Members Survey, ahead<br />
of negotiations for the new Enterprise<br />
Agreement. Members were surveyed<br />
on all aspects of working in the ACT<br />
<strong>Ambulance</strong> Service, from conditions and<br />
entitlements to job satisfaction, challenges<br />
and opportunities, organisation structure<br />
and strategic direction.<br />
The survey was deliberately broad<br />
and holistic in approach, and will not<br />
only be used to inform key objectives<br />
in the upcoming Enterprise Agreement<br />
negotiations, but will be a useful tool to<br />
assist the TWU to respond to members<br />
concerns, in particular to improve work/life<br />
balance issues. More than 80 percent of<br />
front-line officers responded to the survey.<br />
AMBULANCE ACTIVE SPRING 2011<br />
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