Paramedic Ballot
At our Branch Meeting in December the members gave us a mandate to continue with our action for the legacy Paramedics.
There have been a number of issues raised by the Trust who had challenged our right to hold a ballot, the GMB national office has now sanctioned our ballot and ballot papers have now been sent out by the electoral service.
It is clear that the Trust consider the issue resolved as they had agreement from the other two unions on the process. However, we firmly believe that that process was flawed as NWAS had involved NHS Employers who may have applied pressure, we don’t know if this is the case, but we continue to call for an independent investigation into this.
It is critical that you make your feeling known this ballot will probably be your last chance to have your say, so please complete and return your ballot paper as soon as possible as the ballot closes on 17th January 2019.
NHS Long Term Plan
The government have published its long term plan for the NHS, we have attached the full document for your perusal. It is clear that there are implications for ambulance services and we can only hope that it will be fully funded.
click to download document
GMB Submission to Pay Review Body
The Usual Joint staff side pay claim has been submitted to the NHS pay review body. The GMB have also made a submission on the following basis.
• The value of NHS pay has been severely eroded since 2010. NHS workers have cumulatively lost thousands of pounds in real terms, and some of our members’ annual earnings have been devalued by nearly a fifth.
• Inadequate pay levels have made a significant contribution to challenges of workforce recruitment, retention, and morale.
• It is unlikely that these problems will be addressed through the NHS pay agreement. 98 per cent of our members believe that the pay agreement was inadequate, and the basic pay of most staff at the top of their pay bands is set to decline by 3.2 per cent in real terms by 2020/21.
• The closure of Annex 5 for unsociable hour’s payments is a specific concern for our members in ambulance services.
The full document is attached for your information.
click to download document
