Declaring the “war” against paramedics was over, Victoria’s Premier-elect Daniel Andrews is promising to send their long-running pay dispute to Fair Work Australia on Friday.
The outgoing government had “unfairly waged a war” on the paramedics over the past two-and-a-half years, Mr Andrews said, and he looked forward to resolving the dispute as soon as possible.
“We’re getting to work straight away, resolving this long-running dispute and reducing ambulance response times, because our loved ones depend on it,” he said.
“They [paramedics] are what’s right with our ambulance system and we need to fix what’s wrong.
“I look forward to working with paramedics, not against them, to fix the broken ambulance system and help save lives.”
Paramedics had covered their ambulances in colourful slogans to protest against the lack of progress in the dispute.
As a show of good faith those slogans will be washed off.
Mr Andrews made it clear during the campaign that he would sack the board of Ambulance Victoria and said he expected them to resign by Friday.
“We will then bring about a powerful cultural change in our ambulance service,” he said.
“I’m not interested in running a commentary on individual members of the board.
“I thank them for their service and I would expect that they will tender their resignation and then we will get on appointing an administrator to work in the short term.”
Then, Mr Andrews said, a “thorough” recruitment process would begin for a new board of directors and a new chief executive officer.
“Only the best and brightest experts, leaders and problem solvers will be considered for appointment,” he said.
The former government put an offer to the union on October 30, just before the election writs were issued but refused to negotiate on any of the matters, according to Steve McGhie, from Ambulance Employees Australia.
He welcomed Mr Andrews’ comments and said an agreement is “not far off” with mainly minor technical issues yet to be resolved.
“Paramedics are delighted at seeing an end to the dispute and are hopeful they can sign off on an agreement in the next few weeks,” he said.
Fair Work Australia will hold a full hearing next year to assess the ambulance union’s “work value case” which could take up to a month.