The union representing more than 900 ambulance officers says its members are pleased that St John has announced to staff it will begin interpreting the meal break provision differently, but they’re renewing their calls for more staff to help relieve escalating workloads.
The announcement comes after months of campaigning for uninterrupted meal breaks.
Last week a group of ambulance officers took a tea cup protest to St John’s head office in Auckland highlighting how ambulance officers often have to work through their meal breaks because of understaffing and the way St John interprets the meal break provision.
“In May FIRST Union obtained legal advice suggesting St John was interpreting the meal break provision incorrectly,” said Ambulance Professionals First spokesperson Lynette Blacklaws.
“We raised this with St John and ambulance officers have been campaigning to improve the meal break policy ever since. We’re pleased St John’s management is finally listening.”
“This never should have been controversial. When ambulance officers work through their meal breaks it leads to fatigue. That means there’s an increased risk for both the ambulance officer and the patient,” said Blacklaws.
“We still think St John’s new interpretation of the meal break provision falls short of the law, and in any event St John needs to hire more ambulance officers for the meal break provision to work exactly as it should. But we welcome and applaud progress. This is a good start and we’re hoping further progress can be made on the other issues facing ambos.”
Ambulance Professionals are continuing to campaign for improved conditions of work. Strike action is currently underway in the form of a uniform ban with an events ban set to begin on 17 December.