THE decision of Fair Work Australia to ban Ambulance Employees Association paramedics from taking industrial action over the number of hours they work has been described as unfair by a long-term employee.

FWA is the national workplace relations tribunal.

John, not his real name, has worked as a paramedic in Victoria for more than 15 years and agreed to speak to The Advertiser about the ruling on the proviso his real name was not used.

A member of a team responding to incidents in and around Hobsons Bay, John said the ruling created hostility towards the Government, which, he claimed, was "blatantly ignoring" the need for paramedics

to have longer breaks between shifts.

"This has been an issue for many years, but it was managed because the workload was not as intense as it is now," John said.

"Over several years our workload has increased and it's got to the stage where employees are working well past their finishing time.

"There have been many occasions where we have started at 5pm and instead of finishing at 5am, we've had to work until 9am - that makes it a 16-hour shift."

John said neither he nor his colleagues had a problem with working additional hours.

But they had an issue with being unable to take breaks between the beginning and conclusion of each shift. "We don't all live in the area we work in and some of our blokes have to travel long distances to get home.

"You might have attended a horrific job on the Princes Highway, and there have been some terrible accidents along that stretch of road, or you've been to a job that has affected someone's life.

"You go home and try to unwind, have something to eat, but you can't relax; it could be hours before you end up getting some sleep.

"The other night I started at 5pm and we didn't get a meal break until midnight.

"It's not as if we can ignore a call to stop for food; we wouldn't do that."

John said that more often than not, two scheduled 30-minute breaks per shift turned into no breaks at all.

"The cumulative effect of fatigue, lack of nourishment and attending a traumatic job will eventually take its toll and, at worst, may cloud a paramedic's judgement. Something must be done."

AEU members met this week to discuss their options and have not ruled out unprotected industrial action.

"The previous ballot taken by the ambulance and police association returned a 94per cent vote in favour of industrial action and that included strike action," John said.

"We have been thwarted from taking industrial action by Fair Work Australia and the feeling around the traps is that we've been dudded."