The GMB, the most important union in ambulance companies, is suspending its participation within the course of utilized by the Authorities to set pay within the NHS.
Hundreds of its ambulance members are set to strike subsequent week in a bitter dispute over pay.
Talks to avert the walkouts have stalled because the Authorities insists it’s sticking to the suggestions of the impartial pay evaluation physique and refuses to maneuver on pay.
In an inside doc, the GMB says the Authorities has “substantial energy” over the pay evaluation physique because it disputes the organisation’s independence.
It says the Treasury units the physique’s annual remit, together with the monetary parameters inside which it’s anticipated to work; appoints and pays its members; and supplies its secretariat.
The union says it has “misplaced religion” within the course of, claiming that ministers “cover behind the pay evaluation physique as they try and justify an extra sharp reduce within the worth of our members’ wages”.
“Ministers proceed to insult our members’ intelligence by telling them to imagine that specialists have independently really helpful that they endure 12 years of pay cuts,” the doc says.
The union says it’s pulling out of the method “till substantial reforms are made”.
This implies the GMB will decline to offer proof to the board as a part of subsequent yr’s negotiations.
Rachel Harrison, GMB nationwide secretary, mentioned: “GMB won’t interact with the PRB course of for subsequent yr – we’re at present in dispute following this yr’s pay that was imposed on us through the PRB.
“We don’t imagine the PRB is ready to act independently. The Authorities place restrictions on it of their remits.
“That is the Authorities’s PRB.
“GMB desires to reform the PRB so it’s allowed to function really independently prefer it was supposed.”
