Thousands of ambulance workers in Unison across five services in England will strike on February 10 in the long-running dispute over pay and staffing, the union announced.
It puts further pressure on the Prime Minister, who is failing to get a grip on industrial action
Unison’s February 10 strike again involves ambulance workers in London, Yorkshire, the South West, North East and North West.
Unison’s fresh date will mean strikes will now be happening across the NHS every day next week apart from Wednesday.
The GMB announced that more than 10,000 blue light workers in England will walk out on February 6 and 20, and March 6 and 20, in a fraught dispute over pay.
The February 6 date coincides with further strike action by the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) in England and Wales, marking the first time paramedics and nurses will down tools on the same day.
Physiotherapists who are members of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy is calling its members out next Thursday – February 9.
Earlier this month, health unions decided against submitting joint evidence about the wage rise due in April to the NHS because of the ongoing dispute.
Health secretary Steve Barclay had promised unions he would speed up the pay review body process.
However NHS pay review body chair Philippa Hird told MPs this morning that his department has still not put in its own evidence despite the deadline having been on January 11.
When asked whether not receiving evidence from the Department of Health would impact the pay review process, she said: “I’m still expecting evidence from the Government. If it doesn’t come, we’ll cross that bridge when it comes to it.”
Health Committee chairman Steve Brine said he’s “astonished” the Government has still not responded.
He said it must be “intolerable” not to have heard from the Government after it “spent all the holiday season… standing behind the pay review body”.
Unison head of health Sara Gorton said: “After promising everyone a quicker pay review body process, the secretary of state’s own department failed to get its evidence in on time earlier this month.
“Ministers must stop fobbing the public off with promises of a better NHS, while not lifting a finger to solve the staffing emergency staring them in the face.
“The government must stop playing games. Rishi Sunak wants the public to believe ministers are doing all they can to resolve the dispute. They’re not.
“There are no pay talks, and the prime minister must stop trying to hoodwink the public. It’s time for some honesty. Ministers are doing precisely nothing to end the dispute.
“The government’s tactics seem to be to dig in, wait months for the pay review body report and hope the dispute goes away. It won’t. And in the meantime, staff will carry on quitting, and patients being let down.
“There can be no health service without the staff to run it. Ministers must open proper talks to end the dispute and put in place the urgent retention plan needed to boost pay and staffing across the NHS.”