News
31st March, 2023
St John enterprise bargaining update – St John make new offer
The Victorian Ambulance Union Incorporated met with representatives from St John Ambulance Victoria on Wednesday 29 March to continue bargaining towards an updated Enterprise Agreement. Members have been engaging in Industrial Action after 16 months of negotiations had not resulted in an acceptable offer. The main issues for members have been inadequate wage offer, compulsory on-call and little movement on many other items in the Log of Claims.
The effectiveness of Industrial Action cannot be underestimated, and we again thank our members for the way in which they have conducted themselves during this time. They have demonstrated how a determined and cohesive group can fight for a better deal for themselves, and all St John employees.
In the bargaining meeting, St John put a revised offer to the VAU and Staff Representatives.
What’s in the offer?
Wages and Years of Service (YOS) – St John have updated their offer and have applied a similar wage and years of service structure to the NPT (agreed in principle) EA In addition to this wage structure there is a minimum safety net increase offered of 3%. If the minimum wage increase awarded by the Fair Work Commission (FWC) on 1 July 2023 is more than 3%, that will be the figure added to the updated wage table.
Because we are getting closer to 1 July, the initial wage schedule will be very quickly followed by the first of the annual incremental wage rises based on 3% or Fairwork’s Annual Wage review, whichever is greater. For the purposes of the table below, St John have included the 3% increase in the table. In other words, the table reflects what employees will be paid as of 1 July 2023 if the agreement is accepted and in operation by that date. Remember, the 3% is a minimum – if the Annual Wage review by FWC is higher than 3% then the figures will end up being higher than what is stated in the table below.
*NPT rates are agreed in principle.. St John 2023 rates shown are reflective of updated offer plus the increase that will occur on 1 July 2023 which is 3% minimum. If FWC % is more than 3% you need to add that on top of the rate shown. E.g., IF the FWC % is 7% ATA1 at St John would be $33.04and a PTO1 would be $29.10.
Mandatory additional On-Call shifts
St John have withdrawn their current claim/position for required availability for permanent staff to take on two (up to) additional 16hr on-call shifts on top of their permanent rostered hours.
This is a huge win for our Geelong and Ballarat members who were unanimously opposed to this claim from St John. Your feedback and your commitment have had a positive result.
Personal/Carers Leave
Increased personal leave allocation from the current 76hrs (10 days at 7.6hrs, FWC calculation based on 38hr week), to 114hrs per year, for full time employees. This is pro-rata for part-time employees. Unused hours roll over to the next year for all permanent employees. The hours paid out will be reflective of the shift you required personal/carers leave for e.g. 10hr shift, receive 10hrs of personal/carers leave, 8hr shift receive 8hrs personal/carers leave.
Parental Leave
St John have reviewed the LOC for paternity leave and are now prepared to offer the primary carer of the child access to 4 weeks of parental leave paid at their base rate, on top of the federally provided paternity leave (20 weeks (from 1 July) paid at minimum wage). The decision to offer paternity leave to employees is a great step forward.
The VAU would like to acknowledge the outstanding response by our members at St. John in regard to industrial action. There is no doubt that the actions have made a very big difference by sending a clear and unequivocal message.