Ambos, teachers set for industrial action

Another wave of industrial action is set to hit NSW, with paramedics refusing to take payment details to protest understaffing and Catholic teachers walking off the job.

A NSW Ambulance waits outside a hospital.

Another wave of industrial ­action is to hit NSW, with paramedics refusing to take billing details in protest against understaffing and Catholic teachers walking off the job as unions push demands ahead of next month’s state budget.

The paramedics union said that demand had rocketed in ­recent weeks, with Ambulance NSW receiving as many as 4000 triple-0 calls a day – about 500 more than pre-pandemic levels – while a staffing crisis meant shifts were often left unfilled.

From Monday paramedics will refuse to move stations to fill rostering gaps, take patients’ billing details or report on performance indicators for two weeks.

Australian Paramedics ­Association delegate Brett Simpson said the system regularly ground to a halt due to lack of ambulance availability, including an “unprecedented event” on Thursday where there were no ambulances available in Newcastle, the central coast and the Illawarra, and only eight in metropolitan Sydney.

“I have never seen that ­before, it is unprecedented,” he said. “And unfortunately for NSW Ambulance it’s not ­because of any major disaster, there is no terrorist attack, no quake or plane crash – it’s just Thursday lunch time.

“There is no major incident, it’s just sheer unprecedented call volume and lack of resources.”

Mr Simpson, who works as an intensive care paramedic, said the action was designed to cause disruption for Ambulance NSW while not compromising patient care. He said patients were often waiting in ambulances outside hospitals for up to five hours as stretched hospitals struggled to cope with demand.

“The action includes 2500 members,” he said. “That is a lot of paramedics not collecting billing ­information and hitting the government where it hurts until they admit that the ambulance service has collapsed.”

Meanwhile 18,000 teachers and support staff from 540 ­Catholic schools across NSW and the ACT will strike for 24 hours on Friday, marking the first full day of strikes for the sector in 18 years.

The Independent Education Union is demanding a pay increase of 10 to 15 per cent over two years, a wage increase for support staff and an end to staff shortages.

Branch secretary Mark Northam warned of the possibility of further action because staff were being pushed “beyond their limits”.

The latest wave of industrial action comes after teachers, nurses and bus drivers went on strike in recent months. The Health Services Union also staged strike action last month.