Ambulance workers ready to walk out if NHS pay offer is not improved

Ambulance staff have ramped up the pressure on Scotland’s health secretary in their fight for higher wages and warned that if their demands are not met, workers will walk out.

Unite said its 1,500 members in the Scottish Ambulance Service will work to rule from November 25.

Sharon Graham, the union’s general secretary, called on the Scottish Government to get back around the negotiating table and warned there would be an escalation if it did not.

Her union also said yesterday it was considering co-ordinated strike action with other NHS trade unions if the initial action did not bring Health Secretary Humza Yousaf to the negotiating table with an improved offer.

It is the latest threat of industrial action to rock Scotland, with nurses set

to strike and teachers expected to walk out.

Earlier this month, health workers rejected the latest offer made by NHS Scotland, which represented a 7% rise for health staff on average.

But Jamie Mcnamee, Unite’s Scottish Ambulance Service convener, criticised the offer as “insufficient and unacceptable”, adding

that “in real terms, it represents a significant pay cut”.

“The present situation is contributing to the NHS losing senior staff due to being overworked and poorly paid,” he said.

“Our NHS workers deserve better from the Scottish Government, and now they have a final opportunity to make a fair offer.”

Ambulance staff will work to rule from November 25.