AEAWA Minutes

Meeting Chaired By
John Thomas.

Meeting Conducted
12:30 – 13:30.

Committee Attendee’s
John Thomas, Mike Hardwick, Lee Waller, Callan McClure, Dave Higgins, Conrad Fairhead, Andrew Kerfoot, Lindsey MacDougall, Dave Bryant, Rick Candy, Chris Smith, Justin Ingrey, Phil Stanatis and Aaron Pittaway.

Committee Apologies
Shane Gray, Paul Davies and Jesse George.

Previous Minutes Accepted By
Moved by Lee Waller and Seconded by Mike Hardwick.

Meeting Agenda

This is the monthly scheduled AEAWA meeting for all the Association Committees (Executive, Paramedic, Communications, Medic, and Transport). Association correspondence and issues from the membership will be discussed here.

AEAWA Business

New AEAWA members
There has been a total of 259 new members signed with the AEAWA since January 1st, 2024. The Executive have been running a recruitment campaign which has involved general emails, crew discussions and talks with the new Operational Support Officers, Communications Officers, Direct Entrants, Medics, and students within the college.

Communications Officers EBA Update
The Communications Officers Agreement was voted on last month, and at the conclusion of the 7-day voting period the results were as follows.

Of the eligible 155 employees, 135 votes were cast (87.0% response rate), with 99.3% voting ‘Yes’ (n=134) and 0.7% voting ‘No’ (n=1).

The Agreement now sits at the Fair Work Commission. Notification will arrive in the coming weeks, advising all employees contained within the Agreement on when it will be implemented.

Ambulance Transport and Medics EBA Update
The newly named Patient Transport Services Agreement was voted on last month, and at the conclusion of the 7-day voting period the results were as follows.

Of the eligible 365 employees, 260 votes were cast (71.2% response rate), with 85.8% voting ‘Yes’ (n=223) and 14.2% voting ‘No’ (n=37).

The Agreement (as with the Communications Officers Agreement) now sits at the Fair Work Commission. Notification will arrive in the coming weeks, advising all employees contained within the Agreement on when it will be implemented.

Paramedics and Ambulance Officers EBA Update
Minutes from the Paramedic EBA meeting 3 can be found on the AEAWA website, seen here https://www.aeawa.com.au/eba/paramedics/. Please check the website and the AEAWA Facebook page for regular EBA updates.

AEAWA Application to Become a Registered Union
Currently the AEAWA have applied to become a Registered Union. This has passed through the Department of Commerce and is currently set for a hearing at the Fair Work Commission in May, as surprise, surprise; the United Workers Union are fighting us to become registered. More updates will follow soon.

New AEAWA Delegate
The AEAWA would like to welcome Lindsey MacDougall to the AEAWA Paramedic Committee. For those working Red Shift NOR, you will see Lindsey about.

AEAWA Current Disputes
The executive are pleased to announce the outcome of a formal dispute process the AEAWA initiated in relation to the Shift Commencement Allowance (SCA).

TLDR:
Please be advised that the SCA will now be payable to ALL Paramedic / AO employees who accept and deploy to a call not only within the first 5 minutes of their shift start, but also to any call accepted PRIOR to commencement of their shift, in full accordance with the terms of Clause 21 ‘Shift Commencement Checks’. Furthermore, as a result on this dispute, there will be a back-payment of approximately 13,000 unpaid SCA’s, for our members.

That equates to around 3250 hours of unpaid work (equivalent to 270 x 12 hour shifts). This is time spent checking equipment, medication and vehicles prior to accepting and deploying to a job, which will now be paid to you, our members. Going forward, it is estimated that there will be approximately 720 pre-shift SCA’s incurred each month that up until now would not have been paid. As you are aware, an SCA equivalent to 15 minutes pay at 200% of the Employee’s base hourly rate.

Long Version:
The Shift Commencement Allowance (SCA) was designed to compensate employees for work performed checking the equipment, medication and vehicles PRIOR to accepting a call. This work had NEVER previously been paid by St John. The new allowance was introduced at the 2021 EBA as a result of a claim by the AEAWA. Since the introduction of the new allowance, St John had refused to pay the SCA in circumstances where pre-shift overtime had also been incurred. That is, they had refused to pay the SCA allowance for ANY job accepted prior to shift commencement.

The issue of underpayment was first raised formally by AEAWA delegates on 31st August 2023, advising St John of their intention to enact the Dispute Settling Procedure, in accordance with clause 38 of the Agreement. Despite extensive correspondence, parties to the Dispute Settling Procedure failed to reach agreement, and the matter was referred by the Fair Work Commission by way of F10 dispute on 21st September 2023. The matter was heard by conference by the Deputy President of the Fair Work Commission.

During conference, an agreement was reached to resolve the matter, however St John later advised the FWC that due to a miscommunication, the agreement was not tenable. Further correspondence between parties and their legal representatives took place, but the matter collapsed due to an unforeseen complexity.

On 1st November 2023 at a Joint Consultative Committee meeting (JCC) the AEAWA again raised the issue of non-payment of SCA, for calls accepted before the commencement of shift. At the JCC meeting, St John stated that their position is that ‘only one penalty rate applies for any pre-shift work’. That is, ‘overtime and the shift commencement check rates were NOT cumulative.’

During the same meeting, UWU representatives also confirmed their agreement with St John interpretation, that the clauses (overtime and SCA) were not cumulative. We disagreed. On 6th December 2023 the AEAWA again wrote to St John advising of their intention to enact the Dispute Settling Procedure. By 3rd March 2024, the Dispute Settling Procedure had been exhausted, and the AEAWA again lodged an F10 dispute with the Fair Work Commission.

The matter listed for conference before the Deputy President of Fair Work on 8th March 2024, and St John solicitors provided their formal rebuttal of the AEAWA position on 7th March. St John lawyers alleged the payment of an SCA would amount to a ‘double dip’ payment ‘equivalent to 400%’. This was completely untrue, as the SCA payment is for checks performed BEFORE accepting a call. A crew cannot depart for the call and perform equipment checks at the same time.

Clearly, they are two separate time periods.
Over the course of two further Fair Work conferences, some facts were established:
1. St John are the beneficiaries of the work done pre-shift by employees to ready the vehicle and equipment.
2. The wording of clause 21 is clear and unambiguous.
3. The ‘trigger’ for the SCA is accepting and deploying to a call prior to the commencement of shift, or within the first 5 minutes.
4. Therefore, any argument that the SCA is not payable for calls accepted prior to shift is flawed.

After much further correspondence and continued efforts by the AEAWA executive, the Fair Work conferences have provided the means to resolve this dispute. The end result being that St John have agreed to comply with the wording of clause 21 Shift Commencement Checks. From this point onwards, please note *SCA on your timecard for ALL calls accepted BEFORE the start of shift, or within the first 5 minutes of shift commencement. You will be paid the SCA and any pre-shift overtime incurred from the point of deploying to the call.

At the last EBA, St John negotiators and their lawyers agreed to the introduction of a new clause and the SCA allowance.

The clause was intended to compensate employees for time spent performing a growing list of mandatory checks. The checks are required by the employer and are essential for the safe delivery of care. Despite this, it is our view that there was never an intention to pay this allowance for calls attended pre-shift, and the matter of unpaid work would continue for further decades.

In raising this dispute, the AEAWA have corrected this situation. As always, we will fight to ensure our members are paid what they are rightfully owed.

Being run by ambos, for ambos, the AEAWA tackle the issues that other unions fail to understand, or choose to ignore.

General Business

Mould In Bunbury Station
Bunbury staff have been complaining about mould throughout the Station, particularly within the storeroom. This has been raised with Country Management numerous times to no avail. An officer recently became ill and had a reaction to an unknown substance.

Basically, the acceptable healthy range for the mould was exceeded by hundreds of times.

Of another concern was the managerial response to this mould, by emailing officers in the area to wear PPE whilst being around it, just be careful. The AEAWA believe this is a shocking response and have advised staff not to enter any area deemed unsafe. Further information will be provided shortly.

For any upcoming microbiologists or mycologists out there, they found the following.
1. Alteraria see here
2. Aspergillis/Penicillum seen here, and
3. Cladosporium seen here

Overtime in the Southwest
Recently the organisation discussed staffing and overtime at East Bunbury Depot were a total of over $20,000 per month is currently being spent on overtime. This led St John to discuss the potentiality of placing tow more Paramedics there. This has now been changed to two extra Paramedics on relief per roster in the area.

AEAWA Building and Staff
The AEAWA are currently working with a property manager to look for an office space within the metropolitan area. There are numerous plans for the AEAWA to grow as an organisation, and the Executive Committee believe this will be accepted very well by the troops.

It will be a place to hold meetings, and the AEAWA (once the Paramedic EBA negotiations have concluded), will be looking at office personnel to assist. More information to follow.

AEAWA Merchandise
Soon all members will be able to gain access to the AEAWA shop. The committee has been looking for AEAWA merchandise, as many members have requested such items from the AEAWA.

Next Meeting
Wednesday 1st May, 2024 from 08:30 – 10:30.

Meeting Concluded
14:30.