West Midlands Ambulance Service paramedics & staff vote on strike action

Nearly 1,000 West Midlands Ambulance workers who are members of the GMB and Unite Unions are voting on strike action
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West Midlands Ambulance workers are set to vote on whether to strike over pay. WMAS worker are joining colleagues in other ambulance services as the GMB Union and Unite launches two formal industrial action ballots.

Almost 1,000 paramedics and ambulance workers are being balloted for strike action across at WMAS - which serves Shropshire, Herefordshire, Worcestershire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, Coventry, Birmingham and Black Country - from today (Wednesday, October 26 to November 30).

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The workers, including paramedics and emergency call handlers, are angry over the four per cent NHS Agenda for Change pay award, which was imposed last month. The award falls well short of the real rate of inflation, RPI, which stands at 12.6 per cent. The imposed award meant most staff received an increase of around £100 per month in their pay packet.

The strike ballot comes as West Midlands Ambulance Service continue to come under increasing pressure to meet targets since the coronavirus pandemic took hold in 2020.

The service takes around 4,000 ‘999’ calls every single day and is getting busier. In August 2022, figures from the West Midlands Ambulance Service, which were seen by ITV, revealed that some people are waiting up to 17 hours for an ambulance in the region.

The latest NHS report for August 2022, revealed that waiting times for urgent Category 1 calls (people with life threatening injuries or illnesses) in the West Midlands reached highs of 8 minutes and 12 seconds in December, which is over the 7-minute NHS target.

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Category 2 calls should be responded to within 18 minutes. Response times to these callouts had an average waiting time of 35 minutes and 50 seconds.

Ambulances sit parked at the Hollymore Ambulance Hub (Photo by Simon Dawson - Pool/Getty Images)Ambulances sit parked at the Hollymore Ambulance Hub (Photo by Simon Dawson - Pool/Getty Images)
Ambulances sit parked at the Hollymore Ambulance Hub (Photo by Simon Dawson - Pool/Getty Images)

Workers likely to back strike action

Consultative ballots at WMAS and East Midlands Ambulance Service have already seen 88% of workers at both trusts vote in favour of action.

At West Midlands Ambulance Service, almost 750 workers were balloted – 88 per cent voted in favour of industrial action on a turnout of 51 per cent. At East Midlands Ambulance Service, almost 2,000 workers were balloted – 88 per cent voted in favour of industrial action on a turnout of 65 per cent.

GMB says ambulance workers are frustrated over the Government’s imposed 4 per cent pay award, which leaves them facing a real terms pay cut.

The Trust has introduced measures to support staff.The Trust has introduced measures to support staff.
The Trust has introduced measures to support staff.

Pressure on ambulance services

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In May 2022, concerns were also raised that the service could collapse - with not enough resources to respond to emergencies. Mark Docherty said patients were dying needlessly every day and predicted the service would fail by August.

Mr Docherty raised his concerns in an interview with the Health Service Journal (HSJ) in which expressed fears that the service could collapse, and called for NHS England and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to do more to control the situation.

What have the unions said?

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: Over more than a decade, NHS workers’ wages have been eroded, even as workloads became increasingly unmanageable. Now with soaring living costs, the situation is critical.

“The impact of this real terms pay cut will result in the flood of overworked and underpaid workers leaving the NHS becoming a tsunami. The government must put forward a proper pay rise or else the NHS will go from being on its knees to being on life support.”

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Unite regional officer Simon O’Keeffe said: “The anger amongst our West Midlands Ambulance Service members at rapidly diminishing living standards, increasingly threadbare services and ever more unsustainable workloads, is such that we are balloting for strike action.

“The government must put forward a better pay deal and one that does not come out of existing, soon to be horrifically squeezed, budgets.”

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