Around 1,100 FIRST Union ambulance officers have voted to stage a second strike at St John, with action planned for the 27th and 30th of September.
The strikes will take place for the first six hours of rostered shifts, beginning at 4 am on both dates and continuing for 24 hours each time.
The move follows a rejection of a recent pay offer from St John, which proposed a 17-month deal with pay increases of 3.25% for the first 12 months and 3% for the following 7 months.
Ambulance officers said the offer fell short, providing minimal increases below the rate of inflation and failing to address concerns over pay parity with other health workers.
FIRST Union national ambulance organiser Faye McCann said the message from politicians and St John seemed to be that ambulance officers should accept an effective pay cut and wait until the current four-year funding agreement expires in 2026 before the Government reassesses funding needs.
“There is no way ambulance officers can wait until 2026 for a fair pay offer,” McCann said.
“A massive exodus to other health roles will continue, and the service will be fundamentally crippled by then.”
McCann said union members had overwhelmingly rejected the offer and voted for a longer second unpaid strike to push for urgent funding and fair pay increases.
She said ambulance officers were frustrated and disappointed by the lack of political action, with health Ministers Shane Reti and Penny Costello remaining silent on the issue.
McCann referred to a recent internal blog from St John CEO Peter Bradley, in which he confirmed efforts to communicate the funding challenges to politicians. Bradley said he had met with Cabinet Ministers and the Prime Minister several times in recent months but had struggled to get through to them.
He also refuted claims in the media that St John did not want full government funding for its ambulance service operating costs.
“It’s hard for ambulance officers to hear that St John knows there’s a major funding gap but hasn’t been able to convince politicians of the urgent need to fully fund operational costs,” McCann said.
“Prime Minister Chris Luxon seems comfortable with the fact that ambulance officers are at breaking point while pursuing an austerity strategy that will decimate our emergency response capacity.”
“We can’t wait until 2026 for funding to fix a failing health service that we all depend on in emergencies,” McCann said. “There will be no experienced ambulance officers left to negotiate with by then.”
McCann confirmed that FIRST Union would again enter negotiations with St John to establish a Life Preserving Services Agreement (LPS) for the upcoming strike, ensuring minimum emergency response capacity for serious incidents.
“To illustrate how bad the staffing situation is, the last LPS we negotiated during the previous strike actually resulted in higher staffing levels on strike days than on many regular shifts,” McCann said. “That indicates St John’s usual staffing levels aren’t sufficient to provide a minimum life-saving capacity – except when workers vote to go on strike.”
