City responds to paramedic job action

As we first reported in a CityNews exclusive, a group of more than 100 Toronto paramedics is refusing to work overtime, saying they are overworked and understaffed.

They want the city to hire 200 more paramedics.

Roberta Scott is one of the paramedics taking part in the job action.

“Toronto EMS is extremely short-staffed. We don’t have enough paramedics on the road,” said Scott. “Our response times are very, very below standard and it’s dangerous to the public.”

But EMS management says 40 new staff has been approved and will begin training next week.

A new schedule set to begin in the New Year should also alleviate their workload, Toronto EMS Dep. Chief Cindy Nicholson, told CityNews.

“We are hopeful that the overtime will actually be minimized with this new schedule,” said Nicholson. “And we are also going to have the opportunity in 2013 to hire part time paramedics.”

“The new schedule is really to address our staffing levels to our service demand. We currently have a 35 year old schedule which does not address those issues.”

Some paramedics complain the new schedule will split up longtime partners and move some paramedics to new stations, but Deputy Mayor Doug Holyday defended the changes.

“I guess you could hire more people and that could solve the problem in another way, but more expensive way. We think we can solve the problem just by rescheduling.”

Mayor Rob Ford weighed in on the labour strife Tuesday, criticizing the paramedics who refuse overtime.

“I don’t think that’s right, I don’t think that’s right at all,” Ford said. “They’ve got to a job to do, they should do it.”

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