Ambulance Active Spring 2011Published By Countrywide Austral

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