Yorkshire ambulance workers may walk following 'critical' pay dispute

Ambulance workers throughout Yorkshire and the Humber, who are members of the trade union Unite, are being ballotted over a possible strike after a pay rise of less than the rate of inflation.

Workers were handed a four percent NHS Agenda for Change Award pay award last month that saw them earn an extra £100 per month but many were unhappy that it falls below the current real rate of inflation which currently sits at 12.6 per cent.

In response, nearly 400 Yorkshire workers will vote over the next few weeks on whether to escalate industrial action.

The ballot, organised and supported by Unite the Union, opened yesterday (Wednesday) and is set to close on November 30.

Unite is urging workers to vote following their ‘critical’ pay situation due to the increased cost of living.

The strike follows Unite’s consultative ballot earlier this year, in which 84% of Unite members employed by English NHS organisations voted for industrial action.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “For 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 current real terms pay cut will result in the flood of overworked and underpaid workers leaving the NHS becoming a tsunami. Rishi Sunak’s government must put forward a proper pay rise or else the NHS will go from being on its knees to being on life support.”

Unite national officer for health, Colenzo Jarrett-Thorpe, said: “New prime minister Rishi Sunak and his ministers must get a grip of the staffing crisis in the NHS. They must put forward a better pay deal, one that does some not come out of existing, soon to be horrifically squeezed, budgets.

“NHS workers cannot carry on like this. Waiting lists are lengthening and healthcare staff are leaving in alarming numbers. Unite is determined to win a better deal for its members.”