However, whilst it is undoubtedly a great honour for us to be included in the award of the Diamond Jubilee medal as one of the three emergency services, it would also be very welcome news if we were to be included in Lord Hutton’s report on the retirement ages for those in the emergency services who provide a unique and uniformed service to the public.

It surely cannot be questioned that ambulance staff also provide a unique and uniformed service for the public.

It is also undeniable that, unlike colleagues in the police and fire services, ambulance paramedics have to be registered with a professional body in order to practice and are subject to the rules and regulations of that professional body in addition to those of their own individual Trusts.

It cannot be denied that ambulance staff handle, proportionate to their staffing numbers, far more emergency calls per head than their colleagues in the police or fire service.

Lord Hutton has decided that our colleagues in the police and fire services should be able to retire at 60. We fully support this.

Incredibly, ambulance staff have been left out of this particular recognition of the emergency services and we will have to continue to work until we are 67 and more likely, for many of us, until we are 68 or beyond.

It is unreasonable and unfair for the ambulance service to be treated, yet again, as the “Cinderella Service” of the three emergency services.

How does it make sense for the Queen to recognize our unique and uniformed role by including us in the award of her Diamond Jubilee medal, but forLord Hutton to completely ignore us in his report on pension ages?

What can we, as ambulance staff do about this situation?

Well there is always the option, always chosen by some, to just do absolutely nothing and hope someone will fight our battles for us. That way lies failure of course.

Alternatively, the next time you are on line, you could send a message to the Prime Minister asking that he looks again at the retirement age for ambulance staff by sending an email to https://email.number10.gov.uk/

Very simple. Very easy.

NOW IS THE OPPORTUNITY TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE: LET’S NOT LOSE IT.

The mass flurry of activity over the past few months in workplaces have galvanised NHS workers to want to do more to speak up on their pensions. GMB a membership led organisation are empowering members to take the lead and the GMB NHS Representatives have established two distinct campaigns on paying more and working longer:

NHS Workers want their politicians in their constituencies to stand up

1. for them and therefore the ‘Paying More’ in pension contributions campaign is aimed at politicians. MP’s need to recognise the unfairness of this Government in targeting working people to pay for the deficit. NHS workers already pay 8% in contributions and only recently agreed to pension reforms.

2. NHS workers want their employers to seriously consider the implications of Government policy to raise retirement age. NHS workers in many cases offer a lifetime of public service in caring for the citizens of this country. The work of an NHS worker is physically demanding and do Employers really want a generation of workers who have paid their dues in a lifetime of work to continue until they drop?

On the 9th March, the government put forward their final offer on the proposed new terms of the NHS Pension Scheme, despite there still being important outstanding issues to resolve.

 The government’s offer is complicated to say the least and the full documentation and description of the proposals can be found on the GMB website. This briefing helps you to understand what the offer means and sets out the GMB NHS Committee’s position on the government’s offer which has been unanimously recommended to be rejected.

 BACKGROUND

 Discussions with government started back in 2010. Nationally, the trade unions attempted to structure the sector discussions to allow some flexibility around the big ticket items on ‘working longer, paying more and getting less’.

 Unfortunately the government refused to give way on the following key issues:

1)     Raising the NHS pension age to state pension age.

2)     Taxing NHS staff by increasing pension contributions by 3.2% on average.

 So with the parameters set the discussions had very little flexibility to achieve a negotiated and agreeable outcome. Nevertheless the health sector trade unions creatively managed to explore the possibilities of moving away from a default state pension age by setting the NHS pension age three years lower than this. The trade union side managed to explore this within the cost ceiling imposed by government on the health sector discussions. Unfortunately, the Secretary State for Health then refused this option on the grounds that it was the government’s policy to link public sector workers retirement age to state pension age. This is one of many examples where the GMB alongside the health trade unions attempted to mitigate the impacts of the pension reforms. Many of these attempts have been dismissed by government.

OUTSTANDING ISSUES REMAIN

 Once the final offer was tabled the GMB called an extraordinary meeting of the GMB NHS National Committees, including the national ambulance committee, on Wednesday 21 March. All GMB regions were represented at this meeting. The GMB lead health sector negotiators presented the offer as tabled by government and outlined issues that remained outstanding, including the following:

 1 – CONTRIBUTIONS

There is still uncertainty around the cost of the scheme from 2013. The government has already tabled their intention to increase pension contributions up to an average of 3.2%. The GMB, having consistently opposed arbitrary increases to pension contributions but have continued to ensure low paid workers are protected from the huge increases proposed by government. The main concern is that we have no definite idea on what levels of member contributions will apply from 2013 onwards. GMB has consistently sought clarity on this and therefore this issue remains outstanding and will continued to be raised with the Dept of Health.

 2 – WORKING LONGER

The GMB alongside other health unions have managed to set up a tripartite review on the ‘impacts of working longer’. The terms of reference for this group has been agreed and the GMB will be actively engaging in this group reporting back on any recommendations that are considered in mitigating the impacts of working longer. We have no idea what kind of recommendation will follow this review and therefore this issue remains outstanding. The GMB’s primarily concerns are that government has considered lower retirement ages for other uniformed services but has not extended similar considerations for the NHS.

3 – COST CAP

 Government still wishes to retain a cap on the cost of the pension scheme.  They intend to mitigate the costs of the scheme primarily by changing the State Pension Age if life expectancies continue to increase.  However if the costs increase for other reasons then it is possible that pension scheme benefits and/or member contributions would be adjusted to bring the taxpayer cost back down.  Similarly if the cost of the scheme decreases, members could expect to see improvements to their pension scheme or a reduction in member contributions.  This “in-built” mechanism for change means that little comfort can be drawn from the “25 Year Guarantee” that government is offering and therefore this issue remains outstanding.

 GMB POSITION

 On the 21^st March the GMB NHS Committees considered the offer and outstanding issues in full. An impassioned discussion followed with a recognition that the attacks on the NHS were all coming to a head.  The government’s approach to reform the NHS Pension Scheme remains unsatisfactory, exacerbated by the moving of goalposts, and despite the fact that negotiators had managed to mitigate some of the effects of the reforms. 

 The GMB NHS Committees reinforced the fact that the NHS review of pensions in 2007 achieved agreeable mechanisms to address any future costs under ‘cap and share’ and this has been completely disregarded by this government.

 The emphasis committee members attached to the 2007 negotiations was that those discussions were carried out in partnership where agreeable terms were concluded. The GMB Committee expressed huge concerns about the government’s approach to pension reforms which has culminated in the offer recently tabled including the imposition of the year 1 contributions which take place in April 2012.

 Due to the factors outstanding as listed above and the manner in which the government have approached these discussions the GMB NHS Committee unanimously decided to recommend a rejection on the current offer and to move to a full GMB NHS membership ballot.

 To conclude, the GMB is not opposed to sensible pension reforms but the NHS proposals as set out by the government are simply not fair. GMB will be setting out its specific concerns in writing to government in due course including concerns around the issues outstanding as listed above. The GMB will now make the necessary preparation to move to a ballot of its NHS members as agreed. If rejection of the government’s offer is confirmed through this ballot the GMB will consider further industrial action including other forms of protests to ensure that NHS staff’s voice is heard.

 Full details and timetable of the ballot will follow shortly.

 NEXT STEPS

 GMB Regions are now asked to plan for the following:

 1)     Organise and plan a series of NHS workplace meetings to set out the offer to the GMB NHS membership. A draft of the materials will be sent to the NHS Committees for approval by Friday 23^rd March 2012. Once these materials are approved regions will be issued with the material so that they can be used where appropriate.  The ballot timetable is being finalised and this will be communicated shortly.

2)     Ensure all data and membership records are up to date as the ballot will be conducted using membership system employer codes for the NHS.

3)     Equip senior NHS reps to undertake and support any workplace presentation. Some regions are holding reps briefings so that those that are undertaking the presentations to set out the offer fully understand the details.

4)     Use every opportunity to organise and consolidate membership.

5)     Make sure members understand the next steps and the ballot timetable including who to contact should they not receive a ballot paper. Full details of the ballot process and timetable will be issued shortly.

6)     A series of GMB NHS literature briefings to support you in workplace meetings can be found on the GMB website and will be emailed to regions directly.

 You will receive more information on the ballot in due course, in the meantime please access or look at the information on the GMB website at www.gmb.org.uk/nhs 

 Should you have any questions at this stage or would like to arrange a NHS pension briefing please contact your local GMB NHS Rep or Officer.

This will directly affect over 700 staff and their managers, who will now have to move to the new providers under TUPE legislation. It will also have a knock on effect for staff in support services with the loss of 40% of the fleet and over 20% of all staff.

The contract was split into counties and awarded as follows:

Derbyshire                             NSL Ltd

Leicestershire                       Arriva

Lincolnshire                           NSL Ltd

Northamptonshire                 NSL Ltd

Nottinghamshire                    Arriva

Regional booking centre was not awarded due to economic reasons, not sure what this means as our enquiries are ongoing. However, we assume that it would be uneconomic for Arriva and NSL to set up contact centres for each county and EMAS are doing it on their behalf.

This is something this Trust should bear in mind when submitting any bids for contracts, we should try to avoid at all cost any attempts to separate our control function from operations. 

Local Contract Update

As some of you who attended our recent meeting will be aware the PTS contract has been extended for a period of 12 months which will mean the contract is now up for renewal at the end of March 2013. This will mean that the tender process will start around Sept next year, and we need to ensure we are able to resist any attacks that may come our way.

We are already aware of private providers waiting in the wings to try to win parts if not all of the contract and we have been working closely with management to identify efficiencies.

At the beginning of the year management where looking to achieve the £3 million saving required for under activity through staff losses, we have now persuaded them to look for saving through flexibilities.

This can be achieved through dramatically reducing the use of Taxi and VCS, not filling all vacancies and revamping the management structure.

To this end a new meal break policy that puts everyone on a 30 minute break and allows for compensation to be paid if that break is late or off station, has now been agreed.

A review of rota patterns is currently ongoing to ensure that staff are best placed to meet present and future demands. Local meetings will be taking place shortly to look at any quick fixes or slight amendments. If you have any issues contact your local rep.

This branch will continue to fight to protect PTS jobs as we believe jobs are more important than pensions.

A number of our members (paramedics and EMT 2’s / Technicians), have asked about stepping back down from full, front-line emergency work, although remaining operational and without too much loss of unsocial hours; not working nights; no early starts and a decent regular rota pattern including 2x weekends off and not forgoing shift progression rights.

Within the Cheshire and Mersey area there are still some paramedics / technician/ EMT 2 vacancies on the intermediate tier which may be the answer to many of your queries…..NWAS will be putting out some information on this shortly.

It is all over bar the shouting, as the saying goes, but the shouting has only just begun.

We thought it was all going well, the two separate roles of Team Leader and Senior Paramedic were agreed and evaluated, all band 6 staff written too with options explained.

Then we find out that some of the staff who have been acting up in secondment band 6 positions, have been receiving incremental increases annually, in fact some staff on the old Mersey protection arrangements have also been uplifted.

This branch has continually argued that any promotions should be advertised in line with the NHS Agenda for Change terms and conditions, that   requires;

“Opportunities for promotion should be widely publicised and open to anyone with the skills or potential after training” (AFC sect: 31.24).

This has never happened and the same staff have been “acting up” for years, it even goes on in HR with some staff now in their third year of “secondment”

However, it does not feel right that some staff who are now approaching the top of band 6 may be told they are unsuccessful in their application and put back on to band 5 pay – without protection.

We have told management that we see no easy way around this problem other than to protect all those staff who have moved up the pay band. This is very unlikely and therefore we as a branch will support our members who feel aggrieved by the process.

It is a shame because we believed this was a real opportunity for staff development and team working within the service, had it been carried out correctly.

Since the introduction of the EMT 1 role into NWAS, the ASU/GMB branch have demanded that there should be opportunities for post holders in this role to have the ability to progress through to paramedic development, under the Agenda for Change, KSF umbrella.

At a recent meeting with the NWAS management, positive discussions were held around an outline 3-year framework that would see an EMT 1 having the opportunity to complete the necessary IHCD modules to access the Paramedic diploma programme.

The caveat to all this is firstly, development in this role will only be offered when vacancies arise and after paramedic realisation have been fulfilled by other staff groups.

The branch believed that the current management arrangements within PTS were not dynamic enough to meet the challenges ahead and the branch passed a vote of no confidence in PTS management.

Once notified of this the Trust has now set up a PTS Strategic Review Group, made up of senior executive directors, the three staff side leads and chaired by the Deputy Chief Executive.

This group meets fortnightly with a remit to review available data and make decisions for implementation; it will also make recommendations to the board with reference to bidding for contracts.

To enable decisions to be enacted quickly a PTS modernisation group has also been set up which again will meet fortnightly and include senior management and staff side reps.

At present the contract is set up so that we are paid an agreed amount for agreed activity, any under activity results in us paying back money. We have been under activity for most of the year and it is looking like we will need to pay back more than two million pound in next year’s contract. This is on top of the cost improvement programme imposed on all NHS trusts by the coalition. So as you can see we are looking at a total of around £3,000,000 in efficiencies, which may seem massive, but given that the budget of £42 million it is 1.26% of the total budget.

It will not be easy we will have to be more flexible as a workforce and make some tough decisions. However, the membership was very clear in its view that change needs to happen to protect our jobs from the privateers, we as branch will do all that we can to see that that happens and very much welcome your support and suggestions in this task .

GMB and the other main NHS unions have met Department of Health officials and NHS Employers several times to discuss government’s consultation on contribution increases launched on 28^th July and the wider government plans for NHS pension reform.  Government has so far refused to engaged positively in these discussions and refused to provide relevant information the unions have requested or demonstrate any willingness to negotiate on the reforms proposed.

GMB does not believe public sector schemes are unsustainable and repeated evidence from the Office for Budget Responsibility, National Audit Office, Public Accounts Committee and even Lord Hutton’s Report into the future of pension provision in the public sector demonstrates that the reforms agreed less than five years ago have put schemes on an affordable and manageable footing.  There is no crisis in public sector pensions and no need for imposed, radical cuts to members’ pension savings.

GMB’s View

The NHS schemes are financially sound and collect £2billion a year more from contributions than is paid out in pension benefits.  Nevertheless, change is ongoing in NHS pensions.  The reforms agreed under the last government and policies already imposed by this one are saving the taxpayer millions.  It is worth highlighting the fact that the cost of NHS pensions is already reducing as a result of:

The Falling Cost of Reformed NHS Pensions

A number of changes were made in 2007 with the introduction of the NHS 2008 Scheme.  The future service cost (the cost of pensions currently being built up) of NHS pensions will fall over time.  This is already happening as many members are paying more and retiring later than previously.

Benefit Indexation Change – RPI-CPI

The cut in the indexation of NHS pension benefits from the Retail Price Index (RPI) to the Consumer Price Index (CPI) results in an approximate reduction in scheme value of around 15%. 

Pay Freeze

As members will know, pay across the public sector has been frozen for two years. This means there are savings for both NHS pension schemes.

Job Losses

Thousands of people have already lost their jobs in the NHS as outsourcing has increased;  government’s policies on NHS reform mean that this is likely to continue.  This will further reduce the employers’ annual pension costs significantly.

Next Steps

The NHS trade unions believe that these excessive cuts and contribution hikes will cause many people currently saving for retirement to opt out of schemes.  This will lead to poverty in retirement for them and higher tax for everyone.

GMB is keen to engage in talks with government on pension reform and it is vital that members recognise and understand the dangers of the government’s current approach.  We will continue to argue that the NHS pension schemes  are already making savings and that while negotiated reform is possible, there should be no further ‘raids’ on the scheme.

What You Can Do

More information regarding the ballot will be sent out in due course.  It is imperative that members use this opportunity to make it clear to government that their pension matters and is worth defending.  In the meantime:

v     Talk to your colleagues and make sure they understand the threat to their retirement

v     Keep up to date by checking the GMB website regularly:  www.gmb.org.uk/pspc

v     Ask non members to join GMB:  www.gmb.org.uk/join

v     Ensure your membership details are correct by registering with GMB online:  https://www.gmb.org.uk/join_gmb/register_online.aspx

 GMB members have voted to reject the latest proposals from management on the issue of being on duty during meal breaks in the Scottish Ambulance Service. The proposal was for a lump sum payment amounting to £4.80 per week to agree to be available during meal breaks and a payment of £50 per occasion they are called out to respond to an emergency during an assigned meal break.

 The proposals were rejected by 82% of GMB members in the Scottish Ambulance Service as they fail to resolve the core problem which is that staff should be available at all times to serve the Scottish public as was the case until it was changed some years ago.

 Mick Conroy Senior organizer GMB Scotland said “GMB members have again voted by 82% to reject the latest offer from management as it does not deal with the core of the problem which is that the members want to be on duty at all times to serve the Scottish public.

 GMB’s position is that this issue is not about pay it is about ensuring that the Scottish Ambulance Service has the resources and the policies to provide a proper emergence service to the people of Scotland.

 The Scottish Ambulance Service is currently classed as an essential service. It should be upgraded to an emergency service as are Fire and Police Services in Scotland and as it is in England. That would mean that staff are on duty at all times for the whole of their shift and would not be stood down off duty for meal breaks like now. This is not rocket science.

 The Scottish Government must realise that when people in Scotland call an ambulance in an emergency it should turn up and that meal breaks should not come into it in any way.

 A major mistake was made when the old system where staff were on duty at all times that was replaced at the insistence of management with the current arrangements whereby staff are stood down from duty during meal breaks.

 The proposal to pay a lump sum of £250 per annum for full time staff and pro rata for part time staff plus a £50 activation payment for responding to an emergency call during their assigned meal break has now been overwhelmingly rejected by GMB members.

 GMB want to see further negotiations on this matter and we want to see the Scottish Government involved in the talks.

 The people of Scotland can rest assured that GMB like them want an ambulance service delivering the quality of service they expect and that this is the number one priority for GMB in the Scottish Ambulance service.”