North West Ambulance Service training staff go on strike for 48 hours - this is why

The 48-hour walkout, which lasts all of today and tomorrow, involves 16 people who train 999 staff to handle manage emergency and other urgent calls efficiently.

These trainers, who are based at control centres in Manchester Parkway, Broughton (Preston), and Estuary Point in Liverpool, are in dispute with the ambulance service over a pay cut.

Their action will not affect the service’s ability to respond to emergencies.

UNISON says the dispute relates to relates to a recruitment and retention payment. Anyone who joined the training department used to be eligible for the money, which was intended as an incentive for staff to stay with the ambulance service. However, managers scrapped the payment when the training department was restructured.

Only long-standing members of the team are still eligible to receive the money, not staff promoted into the training unit or those seconded into the team, who were then hired on a permanent basis.

UNISON says these workers account for over 60 per cent of the training unit’s staff and have suffered a pay cut as a result. They are earning over £3,000 a year (or 9 per cent) less than some of their colleagues, says the union.

The union says ambulance service managers have made no attempt to resolve the dispute and have failed to address the financial losses suffered by staff. Trainers were only told on their return to the unit that they were no longer eligible for the payment.

Staff who are affected had originally planned to work to their contracts, and refuse to do any overtime, to try to get ambulance service managers to think again. But training unit staff decided to walk out for two days instead because their bosses were so unsympathetic, says UNISON.

“Heartless”

UNISON North West regional organiser James Bull said: "These workers provide vital training to their colleagues to help ensure the ambulance trust operates effectively and can provide a good service to the public. But they’ve been treated appallingly. The trust is using a loophole in NHS salaries guidance to drive down staff pay, ignoring the likely impact on recruitment and retention of these specialist workers across the ambulance service. At a time when NHS workers are struggling with the cost of living, this pay cut is not just ill-advised, it’s heartless.

"These staff want to get back to work, but they deserve to be treated fairly. It’s time for the North West Ambulance Service to listen and put forward a sensible proposal to resolve this unsatisfactory situation.”

A worker taking part in the strike who wished to remain anonymous, said: "I personally suffered a £5,000 loss on moving to the post. I wasn’t told at the time that this cut had happened, so I was shocked when I received my first pay slip. It’s outrageous that we have people doing the same job in the same team for nine per cent less pay than some of their colleagues. The trust must put a stop to this now.”

NWAS

An NWAS spokesperson said: “We have tried to work with unions to resolve the dispute related to a restructuring of the team. The action will not affect our ability to respond to patients or the wider healthcare system.”