Former Emergency Services Minister warned about serious staff shortages in ESTA in 2016

There are calls for James Merlino to be stripped of his title after revelations he ignored warnings of serious ESTA staff shortages six years ago.

There were serious concerns about ESTA call taker staff shortages as far back as 2016. Picture: David Crosling

The state government has laughed off demands that James Merlino be stripped of his deputy Premier title amid the state’s triple-0 crisis.

It comes amid revelations Mr Merlino — a former Emergency Services Minister — was warned about serious staff shortages in ESTA in 2016.

Despite the warnings being made five years ago, the state’s triple-0 crisis has worsened, with 12 people dying after desperate calls to Victoria’s trouble plagued went unanswered within the benchmark answering time.

Opposition Leader Matthew Guy on Tuesday called for Mr Merlino to apologise, stating it was unforgivable for the state government to not have acted on the warnings.

“The Labor government in Victoria owes our whole state a huge explanation as to why the hell they knew five years ago that there was problems in ambulance dispatch and did nothing,” he said.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews and James Merlino, Minister for Mental Health, at North Melbourne Ambulance station. Picture: Andrew Henshaw

“These are the people who have allowed our crisis to develop in emergency service dispatch that is costing Victorians their lives.

“Victorians are losing their lives because the Labor government have done nothing in five years.”

Mr Guy said Mr Merlino – who is also the Minister for Education and Mental Health, and one of the most senior members of Daniel Andrews’ cabinet – should be stripped of the deputy role.

“How does a deputy Premier, who knew five years ago about problems in ambulance dispatch, get to keep his job,” asked Mr Guy.

“He did nothing. Why does he get to keep his job?”

Health Minister Martin Foley defended his cabinet colleague, lashing out at the calls.

“That’s just a ridiculous statement to make from the opposition on a long line of ridiculous statements by the leader of the opposition,” he said.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews and James Merlino, Minister for Mental Health, at North Melbourne Ambulance station. Picture: Andrew Henshaw

“I’m not sure what the leader of the opposition is talking about, but as per usual his huge overstatement does him no good.

“We’re talking something in 2016 in a context of a completely different world where over 90 per cent of calls were being received within the five-second requirement (and) well before anyone had even heard of a global pandemic.

“The global pandemic has upset health and it has upset emergency service responses.”

A Victorian government spokeswoman said a new EBA for ESTA staff was resolved in 2019 which included an agreed review of staffing levels.

“Prior to the Delta and Omicron waves of the pandemic, ESTA was meeting the emergency call taking target of 90 per cent of calls in 5 seconds each year since 2013,” the spokeswoman said.

“We have given ESTA funding before and throughout the pandemic to help with demand and put on extra resources when they’ve needed it.

“ESTA is recruiting and training even more call takers to join our hardworking emergency team to make sure people calling triple-0 have the help they need, when they need it.”

The state government announced it would deploy an additional 120 triple-zero operators in a desperate bid to combat the call taking crisis, but the state government has failed to assure Victorians it will be enough to fix the problem.

Emergency Services Minister Jaclyn Symes unveiled the $115.6m package just weeks before former commissioner Graeme Ashton is set to release his review into the besieged ESTA service.

The Herald Sun has previously revealed a series of tragic ESTA failures, including the death of a man whose wife waited 40 minutes for an ambulance.

Recent exclusives by the Herald Sun led to major internal reviews of the organisation, and comes just months after paramedics called for more triple-zero operators.

Triple-0 staff paid bonuses for showing up

Triple-0 call-takers are being paid special bonuses just to show up to work.

A secret union agreement obtained by the Sunday Herald Sun has uncovered the enormous incentives being given to workers inside the state’s emergency services telecommunications authority ESTA.

The document reveals bonuses including, double time for all overtime, an extra 20 per cent for working mornings, 15 per cent for a night or afternoon shift and 12.5 per cent for working during the day.

The bonuses came into effect in December.

Sources say ESTA was forced to agree to the loadings in order to fill shifts because the current enterprise agreement doesn’t allow it to roster call takers when they are needed – a flaw exposed as Covid massively increased demands on ambulances and call takers.

The extra shift loadings, which are in addition to generous penalty rates for unsociable shifts, mean every ESTA call taker and dispatcher is getting a loading of 40 per cent for working a week night.

Under the agreement, a $31.89 hourly rate for a call-taker with two years’ experience has doubled to a minimum of $63.78 an hour for all overtime.

A Sunday Herald Sun investigation into ESTA has also revealed that at the height of last year’s Covid crisis Victorian taxpayers were forced to fly in paramedic dispatchers from NSW and put them up in hotels.

The agency was also forced to pay Ambulance Victoria for student paramedics to work in its call centre.

Cover of a Memorandum of Understanding on Pandemic Demand Response Initiatives.

It can also be revealed that as ambulance calls were going unanswered because of the lack of ambulance call takers, fire service call takers and dispatchers sat idle because of ESTA’s restrictive work practices.

Under the agency’s enterprise agreement with the United Firefighters Union – which covers fire call takers – and Ambulance Employees Australia – which covers paramedic dispatchers – call takers who respond to fires cannot be made to train to dispatch ambulances even though the training course only takes five weeks.

“The poor ambulance guys are getting flogged while the fireys have got their feet up,” an ESTA source said.

“Sometimes senior managers will come down and dispatch ambulances while the fireys sit idle.”

However under the secret deal the bonuses for ambulance call takers are also being paid to fire call takers and dispatchers despite there being no shortage of fire call takers or dispatchers.

Opposition Leader Matthew Guy said Victorians were dying because the Andrews government would not take on the unions and fix the crisis.

“It is a gross reflection on the state government that they’d prefer to placate a union before solving a crisis that is costing Victorians their lives,” he said.

The secret Memorandum of Understanding between ESTA and the unions came into effect in December and will last until July.

The revelations of dysfunction inside the state’s emergency call centre and the chronic staff shortages come as 12 people have died since October while waiting for an ambulance.

An ESTA spokesman refused to detail the cost of the new allowance scheme, or how much was spent to get call-takers from NSW to help kerb the crisis.

He said the shift allowances were introduced in response to extremely high community demand.

“The incentive payments support the hard work our call-takers, dispatchers and other health frontline workers are doing every day to respond to Victorians in their time of need,” he said.

Originally published as Former Emergency Services Minister warned about serious staff shortages in ESTA in 2016