Paramedic pay rates — what are they really?
Following the introduction of legislation to force paramedics back to work, the province will establish a commission of inquiry to help resolve the long stand-off between the government and workers.
While the government claims that full-time parametics earn between $64K and $91K per year, MLA Macdonald says that they “get paid less than Tim Horton’s workers.”
Macdonald speaks out against bill that imposes contract on paramedics.
by Norm Macdonald MLA.
While debating Bill 21, the Ambulance Services Collective Agreement Act, 2009, Columbia River – Revelstoke MLA Norm Macdonald spoke out strongly against the legislation that will impose a contract on ambulance paramedics ending a seven month long dispute.
Paramedics have been bargaining for improved working conditions, increased on-call and stand-by pay, and improvements to the challenges of recruitment and retention of rural members.
“Paramedics are the people we depend upon at the most difficult times of our lives,” said Macdonald in the Legislature. “We depend on paramedics when a child is choking. We call when a senior is having heart attack. We call after a motor vehicle accident.
“We depend on these people to come and do things that we are unable to do. At that moment there is nobody more important than the person that comes and provides comfort and uses their skill to help somebody that’s injured.”
Macdonald spoke passionately about the work done by rural paramedics in his communities, speaking specifically about the challenges faced by paramedics in Invermere.
“Invermere is a community that is hugely expensive to live in, and yet, for most of the time that paramedics are working, they get paid less than Tim Horton’s workers. This legislation does nothing to make this a reasonable job for paramedics in Invermere.”
Macdonald has watched as paramedics have left small rural communities to move to larger centres to work. Many paramedics have simply left the profession because the working conditions are so poor.
“I know that the Opposition will continue to fight on this issue, that we will do what we need to do to get the BC Ambulance Service so that it works not only in rural British Columbia but in all parts of the province,” continued Macdonald.
“I want to say again to paramedics just how much respect I have for the work that paramedics have done. I think this piece of legislation treats paramedics with a manner of contempt that most British Columbians find offensive.”
Victoria
November 4, 2009
Norm Macdonald MLA
Columbia River – Revelstoke
With regards to the “29 per cent compounded wage increase between 2001-02 and 2008-09″; what hasn’t been stated is that this represents an adjustment to account for the fact that paramedics working the “most common shift pattern” work on average 42 hours a week but historically (20+ years) were only paid for 35 hours a week. This “compounded wage increase”/adjustment still does not see those employees paid a full hour for every hour worked.