A Supreme Court challenge to a pay rise awarded to Tasmanian paramedics will not be dropped until negotiations with union leaders is complete for legal reasons, Health Minister Michael Ferguson says.
The Health and Community Services Union had called on the State Government to withdraw its court challenge before negotiations continued.
However, fresh talks between the Government and the union are scheduled to continue tomorrow.
The Government has resisted implementing a 14 per cent pay rise awarded to paramedics by the Industrial Commission in April last year.
But in a major breakthrough in the stalemate, the Health Minister met with the Health and Community Services Union (HACSU) to discuss reopening negotiations on Monday morning.
Premier Will Hodgman maintained that the pay rise was unaffordable.
“We’ve got serious budget constraints but it’s appropriate for the minister to be having these conversations to see if we can get a positive outcome,” he said.
“I think most people recognise that we don’t have a bottomless pit of money available to us but we are serious about having a conversation and getting a good outcome.”
The HACSU’s Tim Jacobson said he welcomed the opportunity to find a solution that was realistic.
“The reality is that the Government has a budget situation, and they’re the issues that we are very keen to talk through with the Government to see whether or not there is a way of us working together to implement the decision, but in a way that’s practical for the budget,” he said.
“There’s always been flexibility from our perspective, we even raised… the fact that we thought there might be the need for a phasing in period.”
The union will meet with Health Department officials tomorrow to discuss the details of a potential resolution.
Mr Jacobson said ceasing legal action should be the first step.
“The big issue in the background is the supreme court action,” he said.
“Obviously, we would prefer the Government moved away from its action in the Supreme Court … in order for these negotiations to commence without a threat over our heads,” he said.
The union has proposed phasing in the pay rise over three years.
But in a statement released on Monday afternoon, Mr Ferguson said the challenge could not be dropped for legal reasons.
“If court action was withdrawn in the interim, our advice is that this would effectively end the Government’s appeal rights and would mean an immediate 14 per cent increase would immediately apply, which is clearly at odds with today’s agreement for without-prejudice discussions,” he said.
“We have the utmost respect for our paramedics and we value the dedication and hard work of all our health professionals and we will continue to work with HACSU to achieve an appropriate outcome.”