News
21st December, 2022
Ambulance Victoria Enterprise Bargaining – Log of claims – Update
As members will be aware, the Ambulance Victoria Enterprise Agreement 2020 (Agreement) expires on 31 January 2024 and the Victorian Ambulance Union Incorporated set up an email address to collect suggestions from members for inclusion in our log of claims to bargain for a new EBA. The VAU have received 427 emails and 683 suggestions for improvements to the wages and working conditions of AV employees. The VAU is in the process of collating all suggestions into a DRAFT document.
Not every suggestion will make it into the log of claims, for reasons including:
- The suggestion may not be an allowable matter in an EBA (resourcing matters, etc).
- The suggestion may not be relevant to AV but another organisation (fixing ESTA call taking process).
- The suggestion may have been a clinical suggestion that does not belong in an EBA.
- The suggestion may have resulted in reducing the wages or conditions of another group of members.
- The suggestion may be reworded to achieve the same result in a different way.
The aim of the log of claims is to improve the working lives and working conditions for all of members through the next round of enterprise bargaining. No doubt there will be further suggestions worth including in the log, so we encourage members to review it carefully and send feedback to [email protected].
We will also circulate an FAQ to VAU members that will address any likely questions that members have.
Further work will be done on the log of claims before it is formally endorsed by the VAU State Council in the new year and then served on AV.
We would like to pass on our sincere thanks to VAU secondees Findlay Fergusson and Jedda McGlinchey for their hard work in wading through and collating all the suggestions.
This is one of the most substantive log of claims we have put together and it is aimed at retaining our experienced workforce and making ambulance a career for life rather than a five-year job. However, this is just the beginning of the process. The most powerful weapon in bargaining is our collective strength and preparedness of all members to take industrial action if required. This is what achieves outcomes.