British Columbia’s paramedics have voted overwhelmingly to ratify a new three-year contract, after months of tough bargaining and the help of a mediator.
The Ambulance Paramedics of British Columbia, which represents 4,600 paramedics and emergency medical dispatchers, voted 96.1 per cent in favour of the three-year deal, the union said Tuesday.
Neither the union nor the provincial employer has released the terms of the contract, but in a media release the union described it as addressing “foundational changes to wages, benefits and staffing models across the province.”
“We’re happy that many of our core concerns are being addressed and that our members trusted our executive board and negotiations committee to bring them a fair deal,” union president Troy Clifford said in the release.
Clifford praised the provincial government, BC Emergency Health Services and the Health Employers Association of B.C. for coming together to reach a deal, but said there was still more work to do.
“While we’re happy that many issues have been recognized, others are ongoing, and we will be advocating to address those challenges. We want to assist communities in improving staffing and response times across BC, we still have a long way to go in providing improved mental health and wellness support to our members, and we want to advocate for our profession moving forward in many different ways.”
Contract negotiations began in October, but it wasn’t until veteran mediator Vince Ready came the table in December that the two sides were able to hammer out an agreement, with a tentative deal inked on Jan. 6.
Wages and the rural service delivery model loomed large in negotiations.
Paramedics had long complained about the pay model for on-call crews, most of whom work in rural and remote environments and face pay-rates of $2 per hour when not responding to an incident.
