Free rides: NSW paramedics refuse to collect billing information

As of 9pm Wednesday paramedics stopped collecting billing information from patients transported in ambulances.

Australian Paramedics Association NSW secretary Steve Pearce says the ban is a protest against the $80 fee, not the check itself.

"As emergency services first-responders we are not prepared to pay for something that should be covered by employers," Mr Pearce told AAP.

"Paramedics are really angry, they're not going to cop this."

He said the state's 16,000 police and Fire & Rescue staff had already been granted an exemption from the $80 fee.

Read more: Illawarra paramedics join statewide boycott of fees

Paramedics are required to have their Working With Children checks by the end of the month, but Mr Pearce said he expects up to 60 per cent of officers to refuse.

"On April 1 paramedics will turn up to work as rostered and they'll have to be stood down. We're looking at chaos," he said.

Mr Pearce said although small, the fee was a "slap in the face" to paramedics who regularly work overtime due to staffing issues.

"They're working long hours past the end of their shifts, they're not getting their meal breaks and then to hit them with $80 ... It's just not on, they've hit the wall and they just won't pay it," he said.

Mr Pearce estimated the financial loss to NSW Ambulance since the protest kicked in was already enough to cover the $220,000 required to pay for all checks.

"That's the irony and ridiculous nature of this," he said.

NSW's opposition health spokesman Walt Secord says the government knew about the paramedics' threat to take industrial action two years ago, but did nothing.

"Paramedics warned the Berejiklian Government that they would begin action in March 2018," Mr Secord said in a statement.

"Clearly the Berejiklian Government has the wrong priorities and is out of touch."

The NSW Minister for Health has been contacted for comment.

Australian Associated Press