New deal for ambulances in Midlands

Ambulance staff in the Midlands have secured a pay settlement after government intervention scuppered a previous offer.

Days after union members in the West Midlands and Shropshire Ambulance Service had announced plans for a series of strikes this month, a new deal was struck which will raise annual pay to £25,000 for ambulance technicians and £28,000 for paramedics.

An agreement had been struck with the local NHS trust last year to implement the NHS’s “Agenda for Change” pay structure (see Workplace Report, January 2005), but the Department of Health intervened to say that the deal overvalued the workers.

But the new settlement has now been accepted by 70% of UNISON’s 730 members in the Service in a ballot, and is being put to members of other unions.

“There is relief to have reached a deal, and staff feel that the employers are finally recognising the technical work ambulance workers now do,” said UNISON’s West Midlands regional official Ray Salmon. “It is not a scoop-and-run service any more. This deal makes the ambulance service a more attractive career, with opportunities to move up the scale.”