News
24th January, 2022
Worker Well-being Program – Free meals for NEPT road staff
The Victorian Ambulance Union Incorporated (VAU) is pleased to announce that, as of December 2021, the free meals for Non-Emergency Patient Transport (NEPT) staff began at selected hospitals throughout the state.
After considerable lobbying by the VAU, the state government has reached agreement with a large number of hospitals, throughout Victoria, to supply free meals for NEPT staff in their cafeterias. The initiative comes after substantial discussion and provides some recognition of the enormous amount of extra work performed by NEPT crews during the last two years of the COVID pandemic
Different hospitals commenced the program at different times, but we are now assured that all the hospitals with December and January start dates are now offering the meals to NEPT staff. Feedback from members confirms this. Three hospitals, though participating, have not yet started – they are St. Vincent’s Hospital, Mercy Hospital and Grampians Health/Ballarat. These three will be offering the free meals sometime in the near future.
The initiative, for each facility, is meant to last for two months but the VAU is hopeful that we will negotiate an extension to this.
The contribution, by the NEPT sector, to the huge workload in recent times, has not gone unnoticed. Although many in the sector feel that they have not been recognised appropriately, behind the scenes, authorities at all levels are very aware of what the hard-working NEPT sector has contributed. It was this awareness that led to the NEPT Worker Well-Being program.
It would be appreciated if our members working in NEPT can confirm with us when they have received a free meal at a specific hospital. The preferred method to do this is by posting on the NEPT Facebook page. This will enable us to monitor the access to these meals in real time.
It has been brought to the VAUs attention that an NEPT employee was refused meal access at a participating facility because they worked for a specific company that had not been included. This is incorrect. You are not excluded based on who you work for, the program is for all NEPT employees. The VAU are investigating this incident.
The VAU would like to take this opportunity to thank every member in the NEPT sector for their ongoing hard work and dedication, especially during the last two years of the pandemic. It is an historically very difficult time in the ambulance industry – NEPT members can and should be proud of their place in the ambulance team, and the work that they are continuing to do on a daily basis.
In Solidarity,