What our Collective says about rest periods:
10.05 Employees working on an emergency response/patient transport vehicle/aircraft or standby assignments are expected to take rest periods during their shift, as time permits, in accordance with Employer guidelines. The Employer guidelines shall not conflict with Employment Standards.
Where such an Employee has not received a rest period following five (5) continuous hours of work they may contact their responsible on duty supervisor to make arrangements for a rest period. Requests will not be unreasonably denied except where an accident occurs, urgent work is necessary, or other unforeseeable or unpreventable circumstances occur, or it is not reasonable for the Employee to take a rest period. Rest periods taken in accordance with this clause are paid at the Basic Rate of Pay.
What does this actually mean for me? How Do I take a break?
From Alberta’s Employment Standard (https://www.alberta.ca/hours-work-rest)
An employee is entitled to one 30-minute paid or unpaid break after the first 5 hours of work for shifts that are between 5 and 10 hours long.
For shifts 10 hours or longer, an employee is entitled to two 30-minute breaks.
This is where you have do a bit of self advocacy. Each District Supervisor is responsible for ~20 units as well as trying to maintain through-put at 1-2 hospitals. Unfortunately, this means a supervisor will not be able to check in on you if you are running call to call to call. Fortunately, with the current direction Supervisors have received The Approval rating for bio breaks is nearly 100%. It is very rare/one-off circumstances that result in a deferral or refusal.
Therefore, call your supervisor, explain what you need, and make the most of your 30 minute rest periods.
further clarification can be found at
(Please note that this document was published in Winter 2021 - Some of the At Hospital Rest direction may no longer apply due to the 45 min/ EMS Returned to Community Initiative)
Other benefits of opening a dialog with your Supervisor
If you are getting caught-out moving, and it has resulted in multiple back to back calls, Contact your district Supervisor. There is protentional for you to get a brief OOS to your closest station so that you can attain the At Station status which adds 2 min to your response time in Dispatch’s Select and Recommend monitor and can break you out of the geological phenomenon of being the closest unit to every call.
If you are nearing both the end of your shift and are about to clear the hospital, Contact your district Supervisor. They have been given direction to try to reduce overtime and if need be, get you a transport truck if resources allow.
If, despite all your best attempts to communicate and self advocate, you are still feeling unsupported, please navigate to the EMAC page and submit a concern so that you LUE can escalate and advocate for you (As always, the more detail you provide, the more your LUE can do for you.)