Page 235 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 13 February 1991
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(iii) That this proposal is put forward by both parties on the following assumptions -
I will not go through those assumptions, but they indicate that the basis on which those figures are calculated should be stable and not subject to factors that might change from day to day. The fourth recommendation was that I:
... note that the current four on-duty ambulances, at all times, is still an agreed minimum crewing level for the Service, with the condition that, depending on the impact of health transportation associated with the principal hospital campus, the Service may have the need to introduce a fifth day period ambulance, the commencement period to be negotiated between the Service and Staff.
It was a very important and significant breakthrough to have that joint paper prepared. I was very grateful for the level of agreement reached between the service and the union, at that level at least. No doubt Mr Berry was very disappointed that the union happened to come to the party to that degree, because he would rather have had turmoil and disputation. However, that, of course, was not the end of the matter and, subsequent to consideration of that staffing paper, the following things have occurred: Ambulance officer vacancies will be advertised during next week, with a strong preference for qualified ambulance officers from interstate. However, whilst the service is now able to offer salary and conditions equal to those applicable in the Australian States, the director is still finding it difficult to attract interstate applicants.
I see that Mr Berry criticises the Government because it cannot instantly attract fully qualified people from other States. I would like to know what magic wand he suggests is at our disposal to make that happen. The fact is that that is not the case; it cannot be done, and we sometimes have to accept people who are only partially qualified and who need to be trained in the course of their duties in the Ambulance Service.
I am still in correspondence with the union in respect of their understanding of the stated intention in the ambulance staffing paper regarding the taking of long service leave by staff. The most recent advice from the union is that long service leave should be staffed only as staff want to take it. Accordingly, this latter input from the union means that the actual number of additional staff required will be - if any - significantly less than the proposed five positions suggested in the staffing paper.
The service has developed a separate roster to manage the accumulated leave which had been built up prior to the establishment of ACT self-government. The ambulance staff were all individually surveyed quite recently - in fact, on
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