News

Last week the Victorian Ambulance Union Incorporated (VAU) met with the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission (VEOHRC) to discuss the recent release of the terms of reference for its Independent Review into discriminatory conduct within Ambulance Victoria (AV) and other matters arising from the review.

The terms of reference are attached below.

By way of summary, the terms of reference indicate that the review will examine and make recommendations on:

• discriminatory conduct experienced by current and former employees (both operational and administrative), volunteers and students undertaking paramedic placements at AV;
• causes of discriminatory conduct within AV including circumstances where required policy/procedural changes have not been implemented and why (the ‘barriers’ to change within AV);
• the adequacy of current measures in place within AV to prevent and eliminate discrimination, sexual harassment and victimisation; and
• how AV can effectively utilise best practice strategies to provide a safe work environment and comply with the requirements of the Equal Opportunity Act 2010 (Vic).

The review will be conducted in stages, including an information gathering stage, a reporting stage and an auditing phase in which AV’s compliance with implementing recommendations made by the review will be assessed by no later than 30 November 2023. Further recommendations may also be made by VEOHRC depending on the results of the audit.

Importantly, the VEOHRC review will be overseen by an Expert Panel throughout the process. The panel is yet to be appointed, however VAU can confirm that the panel will be independent of AV to facilitate an impartial process.

The timeline for the review into AV has not been finalised, however it is likely that the next 6 months will be used by VEOHRC to establish the infrastructure required for the review including, for example, developing online resources, surveys, hiring staff and establishing appropriate referrals to support those making submissions.  Additionally, during this initial 6 month period VEOHRC is likely to commence gathering evidence and information from affected parties in order to understand the nature of the issues within AV with a view of utilising this evidence to prepare its recommendations and final report.

VEOHRC have established a “register your interest page” to facilitate members expressing their interest in contributing to the VEOHRC review. Members can access this page through the original bulletin email. We strongly encourage members to sign up via this page and contribute their experiences to VEOHRC once called upon.

Finally, VAU had previously requested that members supply details of their experiences of discriminatory or differential conduct by 20 November 2020 for the purposes of assisting VAU to prepare its submission to the VEOHRC review. VAU advises members that VAU will now be accepting these submissions on an ongoing basis and that these submissions can be emailed to [email protected] for collation until further notice. We confirm that paramedicine students are included within the scope of the review and welcome their contributions and experiences despite not yet being employed by AV.

We remind members that if they require support throughout this process a number of support services are available and can be found attached below.

If you have any questions, please email VAU at [email protected] .

In solidarity