BC medics pushed to skip safety checks
May 23, 2009 01:08 AM
Striking BC paramedics say their employer is pressuring crews to skip safety checks on their ambulances.
Normally paramedics call in to say they're out of service when they inspect their vehicles. But since the members of CUPE 873 have been on strike, dispatchers have been told to refuse to allow the paramedics to go 'off the air' for maintenance and assign them calls.
Paramedics who insist on doing the safety check are threatened with discipline for refusing a call.
The 3,500 members of the Ambulance Paramedics of BC, CUPE 873, have been on strike since April 1.