Yorkshire ambulance workers to strike over pay

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said members had seen a decade of real terms pay cuts

People in Yorkshire are being urged to only call 999 in a life-threatening situation due to possible disruption caused by strike action.

Unite members at Yorkshire Ambulance Service (YAS) are set to walkout on Monday at 15:00 BST until 22:00 BST.

The union said the industrial action was part of a national pay dispute with the government.

Yorkshire Ambulance Service said its priority was to ensure patient and staff safety.

A spokesperson for the ambulance service said contingency plans were in place to allow it to respond to life-threatening and very serious cases during the action.

Unite union general secretary Sharon Graham has urged the government to make a new pay offer

Nick Smith, Interim Chief Operating Officer at YAS said: "It's vital that people use our emergency service appropriately on Monday so that resources can be focused where they are most needed, and particularly on very serious and life-threatening incidents.

"All of our services are likely to see some disruption, with a possibility of delays in emergency responses and telephone calls to 999 and NHS 111 being answered."

'Crisis'

The government reached a pay settlement with one million health workers in May, including with GMB and Unison members, but the deal was not backed by Unite.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: "Unite will continue to escalate its industrial action until the government returns to the negotiating table and makes NHS workers a fair pay offer."

"The pay offer put forward by the government does nothing to address the recruitment and retention crisis of staff which is promoting the current staff exodus," she added.

The government has previously said the demands were unaffordable.