Paramedics ordered back to work
Health Minister Kevin Falcon
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Updated: November 07, 2009 11:47 AM
After an all-night session of the legislature, the provincial government has ordered an end to the seven-month B.C. ambulance paramedic strike by passing Bill 21 ordering 3,500 paramedics back to work.
Health Minister Kevin Falcon introduced the legislation on Monday, saying that the situation has become urgent with the onset of H1N1 pandemic influenza and a paramedic management team that is exhausted from covering extensive absences by staff and on-call paramedics during the dispute.
"In the Lower Mainland, the number of ambulances out of service each month has jumped to 150, compared to just 12 per month before the strike began," Falcon said. "With the rest of our health care system already operating at full capacity to manage the impact of H1N1, we can't afford to have the ambulance service operating at less than peak effectiveness."
The health ministry said the seven-month strike by B.C. ambulance paramedics has resulted in loss of service during various targeted strike actions, despite an essential services ruling and court orders in May and September to keep ambulance crews on the job.
NDP MLAs opposed the legislation.
"Ramming through a new contract sends the signal to all British Columbians that the government isn't interested in working through challenges, and it will undermine the upcoming negotiations with paramedics and with other public sector workers," NDP leader Carole James said in a statement Saturday.
The union was demanding increases of 20 to 30 per cent over seven years to give paramedics wage parity with other emergency services workers.
Full-time paramedics start at $53,000 and the union said the increases would restore parity they once had with Vancouver police officers.
The province offered a one-year two per cent wage increase.
Ambulance service levels were also an issue at the table.
The union said B.C. Ambulance Service statistics show it meets its emergency response time goal of arriving in less than nine minutes only 52 per cent of the time, compared to 85 per cent in 1985.
Throughout the dispute, paramedics had been operating under essential-service orders
CUPE BC president Barry O'Neill called the government's back-to-work order "the most gutless thing I have ever seen in the legislature."
- with files from CTV News
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