UNISON has said paramedics in England are poised to vote on strikes after a dispute in Scotland was settled with an improved pay offer.
Helga Pile, the Deputy head of health at Unison, told GB News the issue has been forced by the rising cost of living: “That’s exactly the issue that the health workers, the porters, the paramedics, the nurses are so concerned about. Not only can they not manage on a 72p an hour increase, but they know that every day their colleagues are having to leave and get better paid jobs elsewhere.
“That’s just making the staffing situation worse, there’s 132,000 unfilled vacancies and they feel that they’ve run out of ways to try and get the Government to listen. A strike ballot gives them the potential to say to Government, ‘you need to talk to us’.”
In an interview with Mark Longhurst on GB News, she added: “Health workers in Scotland have been voting in a strike ballot for a couple of weeks now, and what that has done has brought the Scottish government back to the table with an improved offer.
“It’s also important to make the point that already in Scotland, before this pay round, people were paid higher salaries for doing the same jobs as south of the border. So, Unison has decided to suspend the strike ballot in Scotland and ask members whether they think that’s enough or they want to continue.
“But we really would hope that the Westminster Government would act in a similar fashion and come and talk to us and put something better on the table for the NHS.”
Ms Pile added: “There’s nothing inevitable about strike action happening. We really do want the Government to listen to the fact that these votes are even taking place and respond to that in a positive way.
“But honestly, the people who work in the service right now are seeing such poor staffing levels, they’re seeing such harm done to patients, if you just take the case of paramedics, many of them are spending an entire shift outside of hospital queuing to try and get their patient in.
“That means they’re not on the road able to respond to other calls. And they’re seeing that that happen each day because there aren’t enough staff, and they know that pay award would make such a big difference to that.
“They won’t take a decision lightly to go on strike, but they feel that it’s the end of the road really.”
