• Ambulance strikes planned for January in five different parts of England.
• Unions claim failure to bargain over pay is the cause of the action.
• English and Welsh ambulance workers will strike again on December 28.

Two more strikes by ambulance workers are planned for January in five different parts of England, according to union leaders.

The 11th and 23rd of January’s industrial action will probably put even greater burden on emergency care, which is already under a lot of stress.

Leaders of Unison claim that the government’s failure to bargain over pay is the cause of the action.

They assert that emergency calls that are both life-threatening and extremely serious will still receive attention.

Pay and staffing-related issues will be addressed by services in London, Yorkshire, the North West, North East, and South West.

According to Unison, all ambulance workers, not just 999 response teams, will participate in the 24-hour strikes in January.

In England and Wales on Wednesday, thousands of ambulance workers, including paramedics, call takers, and technicians, went on strike. They plan to do so again on December 28.

Three unions—Unison, Unite, and GMB—were involved in various regions of the nation.

According to the most recent NHS England figures, a fifth of ambulances were delayed for more than an hour outside of A&E even before Wednesday’s walkout.

No health workers wanted to go on strike, according to Christina McAnea, general secretary of Unison, but negotiations were the only way to resolve the conflict.

She said accusing NHS staff of making a conscious decision to inflict harm on the public by taking action this week “was not the health secretary’s finest hour”.

“Neither was it a particularly smart move for Steve Barclay to falsely accuse health unions of failing to deliver a national emergency cover plan,” she added.

“It’s time [he] stopped with the insults and fibs and called the unions in for proper talks about improving NHS pay.”

Ambulance employees previously received a salary raise proposed by an independent pay review board, according to the health secretary, and any additional pay raise would be unaffordable.

Although the unions claim the strikes are related to this year’s pay offer, which Mr. Barclay is refusing to negotiate on, he is reportedly eager to concentrate on reaching an agreement on next year’s pay package for NHS employees in England, starting in April 2023.

According to NHS Digital data for the period of April 2021 to March 2022, the average salary for ambulance personnel in England was £46,643.

Of this, overtime compensation and shift premiums totaled £13,854 of the total.

Ambulance technicians and non-emergency ambulance drivers were considered support personnel, and their average annual salary was £29,139, with an additional £7,842 in bonus pay.

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