News

The Victorian Ambulance Union Incorporated is very happy to inform RFDS members that the VAU has reached ‘in-principle’ agreement with RFDS on the 2025 RFDS Enterprise Agreement. Although there is still some work to be done to finalise wording and agree on the final document, we believe that we have finished the bargaining phase and reached an agreement that can be presented to members for a vote.

The VAU believe that we have secured agreement for a more detailed and relevant document than the previous EA, with strong improvements to members take home pay. Below is a summary of the changes and additions to the existing EA.

What’s new?

1. Annual pay increases of 3% or CPI whichever is greater. The first of these increases has already been applied recently with the new financial year.
2. Greatly enhanced dispute resolution clause.
3. Introduction of a performance management and disciplinary clause which creates more certainty around the disciplinary process or the management of performance issues.
4. Increased Years of Service (YOS) recognition in the wage rates for PTOs and Comms employees. Total of five years YOS for PTOs and three years YOS for Comms staff.
5. A new system of paying shift penalties which automatically pays ‘reconciliation’ payments in the next pay. Also includes increases to penalty hours beyond the Award minimum payment. A significant overall increase for anyone working unsociable shifts (or part thereof).
6. A new “right to disconnect” clause.
7. Stand-down provisions protecting employees’ wages if they are stood down pending a disciplinary matter. Permanent members to receive their normal pay during stand-down. Casual members will receive payments equalling an average of their wages for the previous six months.
8. Reimbursement of the cost of any mandated checks or vaccinations e.g. WWC check, driver’s licence, Fluvax.
9. Paid vaccination leave of up to two days where a member becomes ill due to a reaction to a mandated vaccination.
10. Increased redundancy payments for members with greater than 10 years of service, who previously received 12 weeks of severance pay. This will increase to 16 weeks.
11. Increased personal leave in the fifth and subsequent years of service to 140 hours per year. Years 1 – 4 will attract 114 hours per year.
12. Increased union delegate leave. Now 5 days available to a delegate in their first year in the role. Three days per year available to delegates in their 2^nd and subsequent years in the role.
13. Footwear allowance increased to $100 per year.
14. Five weeks of annual leave for full time members with part time members receiving pro-rata (this is separate to the extra week granted to ‘shift workers’).
15. Simplified ‘Shift worker’ definition will mean the extra week of leave is available to more members.
16. Commitment from RFDS to de-casualise in line with the stated aims of the NEPT review. It is envisaged that some employees will remain casual to maintain flexibility.
17. Increased parental leave entitlements.
18. Student Observer allowance of $1- per hour, per crew member, when a student is running on the car as a third person.
19. Increased CI allowance to $4- per hour. Increased ATA Supervisor allowance to $2-50 per hour.
20. Up to 20 days of paid family violence leave per year per employee.
21. On-call allowance increased from $6 per hour to $9 per hour.
22. One-off sign-on bonus of $500 for all employees eligible to vote for. the EA.
23. Guaranteed Superannuation payments during Parental leave.

The VAU are very happy with the outcome of EA bargaining with RFDS. We believe that the proposed EA will deliver RFDS members more income, better protection, improved opportunities for better representation, more leisure time and more certainty regarding their future.

What happens next?

The VAU representatives will finalise the drafting of the Enterprise Agreement until both parties are satisfied with the wording. It is envisaged that this will take another week or two. After that, the document will be distributed amongst all employees in preparation for the employee vote. The VAU encourages members to vote YES for this agreement. We believe that it will be arguably the best EA in the non-emergency sector.