Ambos taking industrial action over bullying
Updated
Northern Territory Ambulance staff have started industrial action to end what they call a culture of bullying within the Saint John Ambulance Service.
Paramedics will still attend emergencies and help those in need.
The Alice Springs delegate for United Voice, Dan Falzon said he has received dozens of letters from union members with allegations of incompetence from the management core group.
"The management team is apathetic to staff concerns and ignorant of coaching and support strategies of staff to do important things right," Mr Falzon said.
"Racist and sexist comments and jokes are commonplace, verbal abuse is common, physical intimidation as well as assaults which occur from time to time and are covered up.
"There's only so many times you can walk into your crew room and see a staff member with their head in their hands, and stressed and physically feeling sick about their treatment."
Last week ambulance staff also told the ABC students were sometimes sent as part of the first response to emergencies because of overstretched resources.
The Northern Territory's Minister for Public Employment, John Elferink, said ambulance staff are raising the issues because they want higher wages.
Mr Elferink said as long as the ambulance service is fulfilling its contractual obligations with Government, it is not concerned about how the ambulance service allocates resources.
"Of course their staff are going to explain all the reasons why they deserve more money and often they will drag things into the conversation outside of the normal realm of entitlements and pay, and that's what I see happening here," Mr Elferink said.
The Health Minister Robyn Lambley says it would be inappropriate for her to comment on the working conditions or under-resourcing of Territory Ambulance staff because of the current industrial dispute.
The A-B-C is seeking comment from St John Ambulance.
Topics: industrial-relations, emergency-planning, health, disasters-and-accidents, nt, alice-springs-0870, darwin-0800
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