Outrage over proposed Ambulance Victoria’s Hybrid Working Model

Ambulance Victoria bureaucrats are taking their bosses to the workplace tribunal in a bid to avoid having to come into the office three days a week.

The union representing ambulance staff says they shouldn’t have to give up their right to work flexibly. Picture: Getty

Ambulance Victoria bureaucrats are taking their bosses to the workplace tribunal in a bid to avoid having to come into the office three days a week.

Since 2020, office staff – including people in senior management, corporate, HR, media, and administration – have been given free rein to work from home whenever they like.

But Ambulance Victoria wants to put an end to the Covid-era arrangements, proposing a Hybrid Working Model that would require non-frontline staff to work onsite for at least three days a week.

Hundreds of furious bureaucrats are now taking the taxpayer-funded organisation to the Fair Work Commission in a bid to quash any mandate.

The organisation has argued that bringing staff back to the office will help to rebuild productive working relationships and drive a better connection with co-workers.

But office staff represented by the Ambulance Managers and Professional Association, which is part of trade union Professionals Australia, say they shouldn’t have to give up their right to work flexibly.

That fight will be escalated to the Fair Work Commission for a hearing on Friday, after Ambulance Victoria started consulting on the new work model before a joint review of work-from-home arrangements took place.

No action is being taken by frontline paramedics, who aren’t provided the option to work remotely.

Professionals Australia’s Scott Crawford said the union needed to take the action to make sure Ambulance Victoria honored its “commitment to the workforce”.

“Ambulance Victoria workers got us through the pandemic, putting their own lives at risk to serve the community,” he said.

In late 2021, the toxic culture inside Ambulance Victoria was laid bare in a scathing report by the state’s human rights watchdog, which described an “ingrained” culture of bullying, discrimination and sexual harassment.

One Ambulance Victoria employee, speaking on condition of anonymity on Thursday, said staff were fatigued and burnt out because of increased workloads with no extra pay.

“There isn’t one key performance indicator we have not exceeded. No one believes there are productivity gains to be achieved with this move,” they said.

The state government requires public servants to work at least three days in the office, but this is not widely enforced and staff are instead able to negotiate their arrangements directly with their managers.

An Ambulance Victoria spokesman said: “To date, AV has not had a post-pandemic position for staff working arrangements and this has been managed on an individual or team basis.”