‘Full-blown dispute averted at St John’
AN INDUSTRIAL dispute at St John Ambulance was averted by the appointment of a new chairman, board and management, according to Unite the Union regional officer Bob Lanning.
A complete reorganisation of the service has led to the creation of a new board responsible for both the professional and volunteer sides, while the chief and deputy chief officer have both left their posts.
Mr Lanning said that, prior to the change, union members at the service had been in dispute with the management for about 18 months.
He said this was due to changes made to their working hours. ‘They’d switched to a new roster system and staff identified that they were working more and more unsocial hours.
‘There was an agreement that they should have been paid a higher wage.
‘If we had not got a deal done, it would have ended up in a full-blown dispute.’
There was a lot of discontent among staff about the way they were being treated, he added. ‘Management was making an attempt to cut sick pay provision and didn’t agree terms and conditions.
‘There was a lot of animosity towards management and hopefully that is going to be resolved with this new strategy in place.’
He said that soon after it was set up, the new board met the union representative: ‘An offer was made that met most of their expectations and the deal has been done.
Mr Lanning welcomed the appointment of medically-trained personnel in senior roles – paramedic Mark Mapp, as chief, and Dean de la Mare, who has extensive paramedic experience, as his deputy. ‘You need people there who’ve actually done the job and know the stresses of the job,’ he said.
New chairman Roy Tilleard has said that since the changes the atmosphere is good. ‘Everyone here is happy and everyone knows what they are doing,’ he said.
Mr Lanning echoed this comment: ‘It all sounds very positive there at the moment,’ he said.
Roy Tilleard has lived in Guernsey for four years. Prior to that he was based in the Isle of Man.
One of his former businesses, in which he was financial director, was the Deb Group – best known for its Swarfega brand of heavy duty hand cleaner. Mr Tilleard later spent time helping regenerate the Isle of Man’s capital, Castletown. It was there that his company built Callow’s Yard, a multi-million pound development incorporating hotels, shops and entertainment and which was last year rebranded as The Courtyard.
