Paramedics across NSW are refusing to charge patients for ambulance transport as a protest against being forced to pay for Working with Children Checks by the state government. Ambulance officers are expected to pay the $80 fee out of their own pockets every five years, while the state’s 16,000 police officers and fire and rescue workers are exempt from the charge.

The industrial action comes nearly a year after state treasurer Dominic Perrottet said that he would review the obligatory payment for paramedics. According to Australian Paramedics Association NSW secretary Steve Pearce, paramedics have faced increasing harassment from management about getting their checks as the April deadline draws near.

The insulting imposition of the fee is the latest in a long line of attacks on the wages and conditions of paramedics. They have been forced to give up their meal breaks and to work overtime on a regular basis in order to cover staffing shortages.

NSW health minister Brad Hazzard is particularly incensed about the union’s action. “It’s 28 cents a week ... and they’re paying anything up to $10 per week to belong to the union. Where is common sense?”, he told the AAP. If Hazzard wants to talk about common sense, he should consider that the financial loss to NSW Ambulance since the action started has been enough to cover the $220,000 required to pay for all paramedics’ checks.

If the government does not waive the fee by 1 April, thousands of paramedics will turn up to work without their Working with Children Check and, under the law, will be stood down. But as union president Chris Kastelan told a media conference just after the action began, “Good luck running your ambulance service if you go ahead with that threat.”

NSW paramedics give free rides in protest against cash grab

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