Welsh Ambulance staff to vote on industrial action over pay award
Welsh Ambulance Service staff are to be balloted for industrial action over what they describe as a below-inflation pay award, UNISON Cymru has announced.
From Friday 24 October, workers represented by the union will be asked if they wish to strike over their 2025–26 pay increase.
The union says the 3.6% award, accepted by the Welsh government earlier this year, fails to reflect rising living costs and the pressures facing NHS employees.
If members vote in favour, strike action could take place as early as Christmas or during the winter months, traditionally the NHS’s busiest period.
The dispute focuses on the Welsh government’s decision to implement the NHS Pay Review Body’s recommended 3.6% increase for those on the Agenda for Change scale, rather than negotiate directly on pay. With inflation currently at 3.8%, UNISON says the award amounts to a real-terms pay cut.
UNISON represents hundreds of Welsh Ambulance Services NHS Trust (WAST) employees, including call handlers, paramedics, emergency medical technicians and non-emergency transport staff.
UNISON rep and triage nurse Carol Roberts said: “It breaks my heart to see colleagues who care for others having to use food banks to feed their families. The cost of living keeps rising, yet the government’s 3.6% award falls far short of what NHS staff need to get by.”
Paramedic and UNISON WAST branch secretary Henry Garrard said: “Ambulance staff are working harder than ever, but year after year our pay awards arrive late and fall short. This year’s increase was meant to be inflation-busting, but it’s been left trailing by soaring price rises. It’s effectively a pay cut for NHS workers already stretched to breaking point.”
He added: “During the 2022–24 pay agreement, Welsh government committed to the principle of restoring pay to 2008 levels. A below-inflation award does nothing to achieve that principle. Staff have had enough of being told there’s no money while their living standards plummet.”
UNISON Cymru head of health Tanya Bull said: “NHS workers in Wales are angry that a 3.6% pay rise still leaves them struggling to afford the basics. No one expects the people who provide their essential services to be struggling to make ends meet. They want a fair pay rise, one that recognises their contribution and helps them keep on top of inflation.”
The union’s consultation earlier this year found that 82% of members who voted supported industrial action. The ballot will close on Friday 21 November.
UNISON says the Welsh Ambulance Service is the first NHS employer to be balloted as part of its ‘Put NHS pay right’ campaign, and that other NHS bodies in Wales could follow if there is no improvement on the pay award.
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