Ambulance officers to ban paperwork

Press, 28 February 1986, Page 5

Ambulance officers to ban paperwork

Christchurch St John ambulance officers plan to take Industrial action from tomorrow, for the first time since 1974.

The 40 officers gave 14 days notice of industrial action on February 14, when their wage talks were adjourned.

The employers have offered a wage rise of 16.7 per cent, bu the officers, through the Canterbury Drivers’ Union, to which they belong, seek an increase of 26 per cent The union’s sectary,

Mr Don Cunninghams, said on February 14 that if action was taken it would not affect patient care or response to emergencies.

The chief ambulance officer at the St John Ambulance Brigade headquarters in Christchurch, Mr Bernie Chatterton, said he had not been advised what specific action would be taken, but assumed it would be a ban on paperwork. Mr Chatterton said that the action in the 1974 dispute was . a ban on

paperwork. Such a ban would not affect patient care but would interfere with the maintenance of records used to obtain funding from the Canter-

bury Hospital Board, and statistics supplied to the Statistics Department. The action would be illegal because the dispute was still formally in conciliation, said Mr Chatterton. The wage dispute has been referred by the conciliator to the Arbitration Court, which is expected .Jo decide next week what r'g--