May 31st 2019

An agreement has been reached that’s worth putting to FIRST Union ambulance professionals.

St John Ambulance staff will be voting on the offer to introduce shift payments for their unsociable work hours. The deal comes following almost a year of negotiations, over 34 indefinite partial strike actions, and following a ballot for the first full withdraw of labour from New Zealand’s ambulance officers in in modern history.

The new deal sees shift recognition equivalent to 5% of an ambulance officer’s annual salary introduced this year, with that payment increasing to 25% in July 2020. All hours worked between 6pm and 6am and all weekend work would incur the additional payment.

Spokesperson for FIRST Union, Sarah Stone, says the bargaining team are ecstatic with the outcome. “Our members have campaigned hard for this for a long, long time. They have had to put their lives in the public domain and fight every bit of the way to get St John to recognise their value. This is a huge win for ambulance professionals and shows the power of workers acting collectively is still the best way to get real results.”

The deal also includes an across the board pay increase of 6.5% over two years, with 3.25% back paid to July 2018, amongst other benefits.

Dorothy Johnston, a paramedic working in the Waikato region, says the deal will see her annual salary increase by over 20% by mid next year.

“This is great news for a service that was struggling to attract and retain staff. It gives us hope that there is still a career path in St John. We are so grateful for the support of our members and our union to be able to achieve this for everyone in the service.”

Meetings will be held around the country over the next couple of weeks to allow members to discuss and vote on the offer.

ENDS

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