MEMBERS OF THE National Ambulance Service (NAS) represented by trade union Unite are to join SIPTU members in strike action next month.

Unite has served notice of strike action on the Health Services Executive (HSE).

A Unite spokesperson said Unite and Siptu members “voted overwhelmingly for industrial action due to management’s ongoing failure to implement the 2020 ‘Roles and Responsibilities Review’”.

They added: “A five per cent increase recommended under the Benchmarking II process has not been delivered.”

The strikes relate to a dispute over the HSE’s failure to implement the recommendations of an independent report on updating staff salary scales to reflect changes in their responsibilities and workload over the past two decades.

The Independent Review of Roles and Responsibilities report, published in May 2020, was to address these changes, including updating salary scales. But SIPTU and Unite have said its recommendations have yet to be implemented.

The unions have notified the HSE of a work-to-rule from 11 May, and 24-hour strike action on 12 May, followed by a 48-hour stoppage on 19 May and a 72-hour stoppage on 26 May.

The National Strike Committee, comprising representatives of Unite and Siptu on the Ambulance Representative Council and local union officials, will decide on further rolling strike action from 1 June.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “These are the frontline workers who save lives every day. It defies belief that they have spent six years waiting for their skills and expertise to be recognised. Our members have Unite’s total support in this fight for fair pay.”

The dispute involves Unite and Siptu members working in the NAS as emergency medical technicians (EMTs), paramedics, advanced paramedics, paramedic specialists and paramedic supervisors.

Unite regional officer Eoin Drummey said: “Recognition of ambulance workers’ expanded roles and responsibilities has been ignored for six years, and our members have run out of patience. If the HSE wants to avoid strike action, it must commit to implementing the recommendations of the 2020 review immediately and without preconditions.”