Ambulance crews could go on strike over pay dispute
BALLOT FOLLOWS 18-MONTH ROW OVER MONEY
AMBULANCE staff in Greater Manchester are considering strike action after it was revealed some are getting paid up to £2.40 less an hour than their colleagues – despite doing the same job.
Unison says that as well as lower wages, more than 100 staff also receive fewer breaks and less sick pay than other Patient Transfer Service (PTS) employees, even though they have been in the job longer.
The ballot for strike action follows an 18-month pay row between the PTS and the North West Ambulance Service (NWAS).
The PTS makes more than 1.2 million nonemergency journeys each year, helping those who need extra support get to hospital appointments.
In 2012, the service in Greater Manchester was put out to tender. A contract was awarded to Arriva after the private bus company undercut NWAS by £3.5m. Arriva hired 112 new staff – around a third of the current PTS workforce – employing them on lower salaries and different terms and conditions to their NWAS colleagues.
The privately-run service received more than 600 complaints from patients in 2014 alone, 80 per cent of which were judged to be totally or partially justified. The company was also ordered to pay back £1.5m after misreporting performance standards, and the contract was returned to NWAS in June 2016. All staff transferred back to the ambulance service were protected under the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006 (TUPE regulations) – meaning they remained on the same terms and conditions they were recruited with. However, union chiefs believed that when NWAS resumed charge of the PTS, pay and conditions of those employed by Arriva would be brought in line with their NWAS colleagues, but that was not the case. Instead, there is now a two-tier workforce, with new starters recruited just last year being paid more than colleagues who have up to five years experience. Unison has been pressing NWAS management to match terms and conditions for all employees and has now launched a strike ballot. Union’s north west regional organiser David Atkinson said: “The situation is ridiculous and untenable. “There are experienced staff getting less pay than colleagues who have just started. The only thing they have done wrong is to have the misfortune of being hired during the time Arriva held the contract. The last thing that our PTS members on these contracts want to do is take strike action, but they are angry and frustrated by the obvious unfairness. We have tried for 18 months to negotiate with NWAS, but they still refuse to harmonise their pay with the rest of the workforce.”
A spokesman for NWAS said it was in talks with representatives to avoid a strike, and that the service has been ‘exploring opportunities’ to narrow the gap between its employees.
The situation is ridiculous and untenable David Atkinson, Union north west organiser