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Yorkshire ambulance workers call for NHS trust probe

Union members accuse bosses of 'swanning about in Mercedes' while forcing through £46 million cuts

AMBULANCE workers demanded an official inquiry yesterday into the £46 million cuts at the centre of their long-running dispute with Yorkshire’s NHS ambulance trust.

They issued the call as they prepare for more strikes over attacks on working conditions and patient safety.

The dispute involving almost 400 Unite members has been running for over a year.

Unite has accused bosses of “swanning about in top-of-the-range Mercedes and BMWs” as they wield a multimillion-pound axe.

Members of fellow public-service union Unison, representing the majority of Yorkshire ambulance workers, have now also voted 70 to 30 to reject the bosses’ plans to worsen working conditions.

The bitter dispute saw Unite-organised ambulance workers last year condemn management plans to downgrade jobs by employing “assistants” with only three weeks’ training — as against degree-level training undertaken by paramedics.

Management responded to their opposition by derecognising the union in February 2013.

But strike action still took place in April and June.

Now the trust is attacking working conditions, introducing 10-hour shifts with no guaranteed meal break.

Unite members voted to strike and walked out for 24 hours on February 1 and for four hours on February 3.

Further strikes are planned for this Friday and next Monday February 17 from 3pm to 8pm.

The massive cutback plans have prompted Unite to call for an independent inquiry run by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) “so the Yorkshire public could judge for itself the impact on patient safety of £46m of cuts over five years.”

Unite accused management of “breathtaking hypocrisy” for driving publicly funded Mercedes and BMW cars as they enforce the cuts.

The union’s regional officer Terry Cunliffe said: “The latest strikes over elongated shift patterns follow the latest refusal of the Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust to meet Unite to resolve the dispute.

“We would welcome an independent inquiry by the CQC to determine whether it is Unite or the trust’s executives who are misleading the public about the facts in this dispute, including the reason for Unite’s derecognition, patient safety, and whether the trust’s plan is focused on patient care or is just a five-year £46m cost-cutting exercise.”

He said strike action was “a last resort.”

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