Employment – Ambulance officers to rally as St John withdrawal of labour begins

Around 2,500 ambulance officers who work for Hato Hone St John will commence a withdrawal of labour tomorrow, and rallies will be held in several locations around the country.

• Withdrawal of labour active for the first 4 hours of all shifts starting between 04:00 on 20th August until 04:00 on 21st August
• Rallies – times vary (details below)

• Withdrawal of labour active for the first 4 hours of all shifts starting between 04:00 on 24th August until 04:00 on 25th August
• Further events TBC

• AUCKLAND – 12.00pm at Mt Wellington, St John station (Corner of Harrison Road and Ellerslie Panmure Highway, Mount Wellington, Auckland)
• CHRISTCHURCH – 08:00am to meet outside St John Hub on Winchcombe Street (Borders South City Mall, 9 Winchcombe Street, Christchurch Central City, Christchurch) and then march to Justice Precinct, 20 Lichfield Street, Christchurch
• INVERCARGILL – 08:00am – 10:00am Corner Tay St and Elles Road, Invercargill
• PALMERTSON NORTH – 15:00pm – 18:00pm at the Ruahine / Tremaine intersection (Roslyn, Palmerston North)

Ambulance officers have been negotiating over pay and conditions with the employer, St John, since the expiry of their Collective Agreement in December 2023. The unions – FIRST Union and NZAA – have been repeatedly told by St John that no funds are available for pay negotiations, despite the Government’s election commitment to increase funding to the partially charity-funded service.

The unions rejected an unexpected 11th hour settlement proposal by St John late last week and are querying why funding has suddenly been made available in the final moments before strike action, and contingent on the withdrawal of the planned strike action.

Union representatives say the proposed settlement dealt with none of the unions’ combined claims beyond pay increases and still represented a real-terms pay cut for ambulance officers, and it was immediately rejected by the unions’ bargaining teams. Strike action is set to continue tomorrow (20th August) and Saturday (24th August), with a ‘Life Preserving Service Agreement’ negotiated and in place with St John to ensure minimum ambulance coverage for serious medical issues during strike actions.

“We’re calling for the Government to live up to their promises and fully fund the ambulance service not just to end these drawn-out pay talks, but for the future of our emergency services in New Zealand,” said Faye McCann.

“Without solving the issue of funding now, we will be back in the same position next year and the year after that before the Government finally acknowledges that we can’t run an effective ambulance service when we’re relying on charity donations and austerity.”

“This is the first time the combined unions have voted for strike action and the first withdrawal of labour ever by ambulance officers in Aotearoa – such is the depth of feeling.”

Mark Quin, NZAA Division Chairman, said ambulance officers were underpaid and underappreciated, and the service was struggling to recruit and retain skilled staff at St John with the service over-stretched and unable to meet patient expectations on current funding levels.

“The respective roles as ambulance officers and communication officers have continued to become increasingly complex and demanding, along with increased accountability and responsibilities. St John is failing its staff in recognising this in the respective remuneration for these roles and why staff feel undervalued, with the last offer not even meeting inflationary pressures,” said Mr Quin.

“Staff feel they have been left with no option by Hato Hone St John than to take this action, because both St John as the employer and Health NZ as the funder are refusing to listen to staff and believe their staff should work for less because St John is a charity.”

“It’s time that both HHSJ and Health NZ recognise the importance and value of the ambulance service in the wider health spectrum and the need to move away from charity organisation as the provider of ambulance services if HHSJ cant move with the times and be fiscally responsible.”