A NEW pay offer for Victoria’s paramedics is an ultimatum not a solution, according to the union.
A $3000 sign-on bonus is a feature of the fresh offer, but there’s no movement on a six per cent rise on base wages or three per cent rises on July 1 in 2015 and 2016.
Ambulance Employees Australia assistant secretary Danny Hill said paramedics were being asked to give up working conditions in order to get a pay rise. “To us it’s not an offer, it’s an ultimatum,” he said on Wednesday. “What the premier has said is accept our deal by the 22nd of August or you can stick it.” Mr Hill said he was concerned the new offer would tie in reductions in work conditions, such as “fatiguing” rosters for rural paramedics, which would see them travel much farther. “The message from (paramedics) is clear, they are not going to accept reduced working conditions in order to get wage equality with other states,” he said. Mr Hill said Victorian paramedics were still the lowest paid in the country. The dispute has been continuing for two years and the new offer includes a $3000 sign-on bonus, up from $1500 in the previous offer. Health Minister David Davis said the offer was communicated to the union but that the government wanted to appeal directly to paramedics. “I think the union has stalled on this and it’s not been ideal, but our task is to communicate this to the paramedics across the state,” he said. “This is a fair offer but this is for the paramedics to let their feelings be known to their union.” Premier Denis Napthine said it was a fair and reasonable pay rise and offer for the state’s “hard-working” paramedics. The government has offered to have the union’s work value claim arbitrated privately before the Fair Work Commission, with the commissioner’s view to be binding on both parties. This differs from its earlier offer of open-ended conciliation on the work value issue.