On 9 September the Industrial Relations Commission made recommendations intended to help NSW Ambulance, the Health Services Union (HSU) and the Australian Paramedics Association (APA(NSW)) resolve an ongoing dispute about implementing an ‘On-Duty Relief’ (ODR) position.  This position is intended to ‘among other aims, reduce the need for paramedics to be transferred outside their work zones to cover unplanned absences from planned rosters at other stations’ (Health Secretary in respect of NSW Ambulance v Health Services Union NSW [2025] NSWIRComm 25, [1]).  The dispute was initially notified in August 2024 but there had been little progress resolving the issues.  

In Health Secretary (NSW Ambulance) v Health Services Union NSW & Anor [2024] NSWIRComm 12, Chin J had recommended a trial of the ODR position in North Sydney. The gist of the proposal is ‘… the provision of additional crews …during the day and during the night, by way of On-duty Relief crews to fill vacancies that arise’ ([9]).  The APA(NSW) agreed to participate in the trial, but the HSU did not (Health Secretary in respect of NSW Ambulance v Health Services Union NSW [2025] NSWIRComm 25, [11]-[13]).

Despite the HSU moving from a position of ‘outright opposition to a willingness to engage in discussions about implementing the position with “an open mind”…’ [15] and despite ongoing meetings between the Ambulance Service and the two unions, the matter had still not progressed.   At [19]-[20] Chin J said:

Since 10 June 2025, the disputes have returned before me on five occasions, on 10 and 20 June 2025, and 5, 13 and 27 August 2025. This means that the dispute over the introduction of the ODR position has been the subject of 18 conciliation conferences and/or directions hearings before the Commission over a period of 12 months.

The progress between the parties over this period has been barely perceptible.

In order to move the matter along, the Commission (at [32]) made the following recommendations (not orders):

  1. On and from 17 January 2026, the proposal by NSW Ambulance for the on-duty relief position (ODR position) is to proceed to the next stage to be known as the “operational monitoring phase” (OMP).
  2. NSW Ambulance, the HSU and the APA are to cooperate and participate in the OMP.
  3. The OMP is to be conducted in accordance with the following terms and conditions:
    1. The purpose of the OMP is to monitor the operation of the ODR position to:
      1. ensure that the ODR position operates in a manner that complies with the NSW Ambulance Paramedics (State) Award;
      2. ensure that the ODR position operates in a manner that complies with the WHS obligations of NSW Ambulance; and
      3. further assess the efficacy of the ODR position by reference to:
        1. the extent of shift movements after sign-on undertaken by staff other than those in the ODR position; and
        2. the extent to which unplanned vacancies exceed the available ODR position resources.
    2. The OMP is to be undertaken within Hunter Zone 1, which is to be “ring-fenced” for the purpose of operational monitoring of the ODR position in that there is to be no transfers from other zones to fill vacancies until all resources and overtime have been exhausted within Hunter Zone 1.
    3. The OMP will be conducted for a period of 3 months, during which representatives of NSW Ambulance, the HSU and the APA will meet at least on a monthly basis for the purpose of monitoring the operation of the ODR position.
    4. During the OMP, the recruitment and appointment of paramedics to the ODR position is, primarily and in the first instance, to be undertaken on a voluntary basis. NSW Ambulance may only appoint paramedics directly to the remaining ODR positions after all reasonable steps have been taken to fill positions by voluntary appointments.
    5. In recruiting and appointing paramedics to the ODR position for the purpose of the OMP, NSW Ambulance is not to apply any artificial incentives, namely, incentives that it otherwise does not intend to apply as a part of the ODR position generally.
    6. Paramedics who are appointed to the ODR position during the OMP will be entitled, while they occupy the ODR position, to apply for vacant positions under the “Filling Vacant Positions – Staff Transfers Operating Procedure”.
    7. The proposal by NSW Ambulance to enable paramedics who apply for vacant positions to be credited with additional points under the NSW Ambulance “Filling Vacant Positions – Staff Transfers Operating Procedure” is to be the subject of consultation with the HSU and the APA.
    8. At the end of the three month OMP period, any implementation of the ODR position by NSW Ambulance outside Hunter Zone 1 is to be conditional on the fulfilment of the following steps and matters:
      1. Representatives of NSW Ambulance, the HSU and the APA are to meet and confer about the results of the OMP by reference to the matters referred to in recommendation 3. The purpose of these discussions is to attempt to reach agreement on any necessary modifications to the ODR position, including in particular as to whether any variations to the Award are necessary to implement the ODR position.
      2. Within three weeks of the end of the OMP the parties are to report to the Commission on the result of their discussions referred to in the preceding sub-paragraph.
      3. The parties will submit any residual dispute about the ODR position to a process of further conciliation and, if necessary, arbitration before the Commission.

The matter is relisted before the Commission on 23 September for the parties to advise whether they intend to comply with those recommendations.

[Note the judgment uses arabic numerals (ie 1, 2, 3 etc) for each paragraph and subparagraph, but wordpress insists on using letters (a, b, c etc) and roman numbers (i, ii, iii etc) for subparagraphs. So what appears as 3(a)(i), above, appears as 3.1.1 in the judgment].

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