Deal ‘tantalisingly close’ for Unite ambulance workers in Wales – union
It is the only union taking action in Wales today.
A deal for ambulance workers in Wales is “tantalisingly close”, a union has said.
Unite is the only NHS union staging walkouts in Wales on Monday.
Others suspended planned action after the Welsh Government came forward with an improved pay offer on Friday.
Negotiations resulted in a new pay offer from the Welsh government for 2022/23 of an additional 3% increase, unions said.
The GMB was due to hold a strike on Monday, while members of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) were set to walk out on Monday and Tuesday.
The two unions announced that action will be suspended, although their members in England will go ahead with strikes on the same days.
A strike by physiotherapists in Wales on Tuesday has also been called off.
Meanwhile, the Royal College of Midwives (RCM) said a strike by its members across Wales will not go ahead and it is suspending action short of a strike planned for February 7-14 while it consults members on the new offer.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham told the PA news agency: “The reason that we’re still out in Wales is that it would be disingenuous for us to put an offer to pause the strike in the full knowledge the offer was going to get rejected.
“What we want is not a sticking plaster – we want to have a deal on the table that will be accepted.
“I spoke to the health minister in Wales on a number of occasions yesterday; we’re tantalisingly close.
“The sticking point really is (of the) the extra 3% – half of it is on non-consolidated, so therefore it’s a one-off payment.
“And what we’re simply asking is to put more of that on the wages, so that people have that forever, it’s in their pay packet, because that will address some of the concerns.”
