Ambulance battle moves to Labour Relations Board
Ambulances were moved from the B.C. Interior and Vancouver Island on the weekend to cover for dozens of Lower Mainland paramedics who called in sick on short notice starting Friday night.
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Updated: November 16, 2009 1:07 PM
VICTORIA – Ambulance staffing began returning to normal Monday, after what Health Minister Kevin Falcon says was an obviously orchestrated strike action by the paramedics' union over the weekend.
B.C. Ambulance Service management was expected to apply Monday to the Labour Relations Board to have the paramedics' refusal to work shifts declared an illegal strike. About 50 paramedics in the Lower Mainland called in with little notice to say they weren't coming to work on Friday night, prompting the service to move ambulances from Vancouver Island and the Interior to provide coverage, and leaving several communities with little or no ambulance service on the weekend.
CUPE-B.C. president Barry O'Neill told CKNW radio Monday that there was no organized job action, although the paramedics were legislated back to work a week ago. O'Neill professed that he was unfamiliar with the term "sick-out," an orchestrated campaign of calling in sick.
Falcon said the public sees the paramedics' action for what it is.
"Friday night was a big concern," Falcon said. "We had whole areas without coverage, and for the life of me I just don't think putting lives at risk because you're upset over labour issues is the appropriate way to go forward."
The government imposed a contract extension on the paramedics after a seven-month strike that prompted two court orders to keep them on the job at essential service levels. The contract extends to the end of March, and includes a three per cent general wage increase retroactive to last April 1.
"I heard the union leader talking about how they're tired from all the overtime," Falcon said. "Well, with a stroke of the pen that can be fixed. There are lots of part-time paramedics who would love to have those shifts, and the collective agreement doesn't allow it. It says it's got to go based on seniority, and that means the full-timers first."
The B.C. Ambulance Service has offered the union an additional wage increase of 1.2 per cent, if they can change the call-in system to allow part-time paramedics to work extra shifts instead of paying overtime to full-timers.
Falcon said the union has refused.
