Collective Agreement Reached on Workforce Redesign

• Techs to be offered the Opportunity to accept an EMT 2 Role and go into Band 5.
• Meal Break Issue to be dealt with separately and renegotiated over the next 6 months.

After a resounding No to the recent ballot of the staff regarding the proposals for the Workforce Redesign, the three Trade Unions took the feedback that they had received from their members and have met with the management to hold further talks.

It became abundantly clear that there was a lot of concern around the meal break proposal and the reference to changes to rotas and deployment arrangements. As a result of these concerns, it has been agreed to deal with the meal break issue totally separately and new negotiations will start in the New Year with a commitment to reaching some form of agreement, hopefully within 6 months. Meanwhile, the existing arrangements in each of the areas will continue to operate normally.

Our members made it clear to us that the references to the changes of rotas and deployment points in the last proposal caused concern as it could mean that there would be efforts made to get rid of 12 hour shifts and put them back on 8 hour shifts. There was also concern that there would be major changes to the way that vehicles were redeployed in each of the areas. This has never been the case so the terminology used in the document has been changed to reflect that. In terms of the deployment arrangements, these already operate in some areas and not in others. There is a commitment from both sides that these arrangements will only be put in place where they are necessary and this can only be done with full consultation and agreement of local reps and managers. The same applies for any necessary rota changes. There is absolutely no intention to make major changes the existing core rotas. There may be a requirement to ‘tweak’ them, for example, introduce staggered start and finish times where they do not already exist or to introduce additional lines to cover times when there is extra demand. Again, this will be agreed locally with managers and reps.

As a result of these changes, the three unions have made a collective agreement with the management which allows for the above provisions, subject to full consultation and agreement with the Trade Unions. As part of this agreement, ALL existing Technicians will be invited to accept a new role as EMT 2, with some additional training, which will place them into Band 5 backdated to October 1^st 2009. This will then increase incrementally each year on the 1^st October until they reach paypoint 21 where they will be held unless they qualify as a paramedic. This offer will be made in the next week or two.

Copies of the agreement will be available on this site soon and will be distributed to all stations.

NWAS UNISON believes that this is an excellent opportunity for our Technicians to finally go into Band 5 which they deserve. It also addresses the concerns raised after the recent ballot. Once an agreement has been reached over the Meal Break issue, UNISON will be balloting the membership.