This year marks 10 years since AEAWA was founded in 2014.
For those newer to the service, the Association’s founder, John Thomas ASM, has been a leading figure in the ambulance industry for over four decades. His unmatched knowledge of industrial matters has shaped the landscape for paramedics, medics, transport officers, and communications officers in WA. For more than 35 years, John represented our profession through the AHLMU, LHMU, and UV, many of those years as President. His long-standing dedication led him to form an independent ambulance association in 2014—a union focused entirely on representing ambulance industry workers, free from political affiliations or distractions.
This was the beginning of the AEAWA.
Over the past decade, the AEAWA has grown into a union with 36 delegates and nearly 1500 active members, the largest in the state for our profession. Our success is built on one principle: being purely focused on representing paramedics, SOC officers, and ambulance transport officers without other industries pulling our focus. This model has been recognised nationwide, with other states seeking to replicate our approach, understanding that representation closer to the workforce means better representation.
A key part of AEAWA’s success has been the unwavering dedication of our committee members. These individuals—paramedics, SOC officers, and ATOs like you—work the same conditions as our members. They give their time freely, attending critical meetings, fielding calls and emails, and representing members’ needs. Their firsthand experience means they are acutely aware of the challenges facing our workforce.
Throughout the last 10 years, AEAWA has fought to ensure ambulance workers have the strongest possible representation. We have consistently stood up for what matters, advocating for fair working conditions, better standards, and protections for everyone in the industry.
We’ve also taken major steps to safeguard the future of AEAWA, independent of St John Ambulance. We’ve engaged our legal team, including appointing a King’s Counsel, to take our union to the federal court to become the registered union for Paramedics in Western Australia. This is a pivotal move that will protect the rights and interests of our members long into the future.
Importantly, AEAWA remains an independent, apolitical union, beholden to no party or political faction. This freedom means we are not burdened by campaign donations, allowing us to reinvest all proceeds directly into member benefits like AUSMED and ShopRite. It also gives us the freedom to challenge the government directly—regardless of which party is in power.
We recently demonstrated this independence by submitting a Freedom of Information request to access the government contract for the provision of ambulance services, a document that the current Labour government has kept ‘commercial in confidence’. Unlike traditional union counterparts, who may be hindered by political alliances, we are free to act in the public interest, bringing transparency and accountability to the services Western Australians depend on.
As we reflect on the past 10 years, we extend our gratitude to every member for your continued trust and support. Together, we’ve built something powerful, and together, we will continue striving for excellence in the years to come.
Over the past 12 months, we’ve been incredibly busy advocating for our members and making impactful changes. Here are some of our key achievements:
- Legal Action For Registration: The AEAWA have engaged a senior legal team to run an FWC and Federal Court campaign to register the Association and secure its future beyond St John.
- Internal Phone Recordings: Obtained legal advice in relation to the use of internal phone recordings for St John’s disciplinary purposes.
- FWC Case Wins: We successfully ran a case in the FWC against St John for refusing to pay the SCA for any pre-shift jobs.
- Unfair Dismissal: Managed several unfair dismissal cases at Fair Work.
- CCTV Policy Win: Successfully campaigned to introduce a CCTV policy restricting the use of footage to minimal situations.
- Ramping Conditions: Launched a campaign to improve ramping conditions and hospital facilities for our members. This is ongoing.
- AUSMED: Negotiated full, top-tier access to AUSMED for ALL members.
- Country Paramedics: Lobbied government and opposition leaders to campaign for the introduction of more career paramedics in country areas to ensure parity of healthcare and help reduce the country road death toll.
- Stryker Rollout: Campaigned to urge Stryker rollout continues apace for Medic/LAR and ATO colleagues.
- Major Change: Written to St John to highlight significant concerns in relation to a proposal to move the work location staff to SHOC in the CBD.
- Police Co-Response: Repeatedly written letters to St John senior leadership, the CEO, the police minister, and the opposition leader to complain about the lack of police co-response and allowing the police leadership to delete 800 of our location warnings.
- FOI Request: Initiated a significant FOI request process to uncover the WA Health contract which underpins our service
- Medic Recruitment: Written to St John and attended multiple meetings regarding patently unfair and inconsistent Medic recruitment and progression processes.
- Uniform Re-design: Successfully campaigned and leveraged our strength to ensure St John agreed to make appropriate changes to the uniform design, including the shirt role labels.
- Nuisance Callers: Repeatedly wrote to St John to campaigning for better management of ‘nuisance’ callers and not agreeing to specific crew configurations.
- ‘Right of Entry’: Repeatedly wrote to St John to object to and correct their legal understanding of ambulance employees’ rights to ‘force entry’ in the absence of police.
- Standing Down Backups: Objected to and forced a ‘rethink’ on the St John policy, which would have forbidden crews from ‘standing down backups of increased scope.’
- CCP Dispute: Raised a dispute over St Johns attempt to limit CCP’s from performing overtime in any other on-road role.
- Driving Policy: Campaigned against the St John new driving policy, forcing some critical changes to their initial versions and ensuring officers do not need to drive continuously with their sirens activated.
- EBA Negotiation Delays: Repeatedly written to St John to complain about the slow progress of negotiations.
- Annual Leave Process: Campaigned to shorten the incredibly long, convoluted and slow process of changing annual leave.
- Part-Time: Successfully campaigned to protect part-time employees from being on flexi hours against their will.
- Special Leave Portability: Successfully disputed St Johns interpretation regarding Special Leave portability
- Annual Leave Disputes: Multiple disputes raised and negotiated regarding annual leave.
- Member Representation: 42 members were represented during disciplinary processes.
- Multiple meetings, interviews, phone calls and emails are usually required for each investigation, to which we have had a majority of success with these issues.
- Underpayments: Three underpayment disputes were successfully resolved.
- Regional Depots: Five regional depots visited to represent country officers
- Country Allowances: Successfully challenged Country Ambulances’ interpretation of inconsistent Country Relief Allowances for Medics in the North West.
- Paramedic EBA: 930 hours collectively spent by committee members at the Paramedic EBA negotiation
- Joint Consultative Committee: 80 hours collectively spent at Joint Consultative Committee (JCC) meetings.
- Meetings: 100+ hours of routine AEAWA committee meetings planning meetings and delivering benefits such as AUSMED, ShopRite and Peer Recognition Award.
- Correspondence: 1800+ emails sent and received regarding AEAWA from members and in excess of 10,000+ phone calls received and made by your executive committee members over the last 13 months
- Country Allowances: Successfully challenged Country Ambulances’ interpretation of inconsistent Country Relief Allowances for Medics in the North West.
- Uniform Supply Issues: Ongoing campaign to ensure sufficient new uniform supplies are available to direct entrants.
This is just the beginning.
Thank you for your unwavering support as we continue to represent and advocate for you.
AEAWA Executive
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