Almost 1,500 GMB Union ambulance workers across Wales are set to take strike action today (Wednesday 11 January 11).

Paramedics, Emergency Care Assistants, call handlers and other staff will stage major pickets in places such as Pembroke Dock, Wrexham, Cardiff, and Llandudno, across the country.

Workers across the ambulance services and some NHS Trusts have voted to strike over the Government’s imposed 4 per cent pay award - another massive real terms pay cut.

Rachel Harrison, GMB National Secretary, said: “Ambulance workers across England and Wales will go on strike for the second time today.

“GMB cancelled a planned strike over the Christmas period to say thank you to the public for their incredible support.

“It also allowed time for the Government to talk to us about pay, but Ministers have dithered and postured, wasting valuable time.

“To end this dispute, GMB needs a concrete offer to help resolve the NHS’s crushing recruitment and retention crisis.

“The public expects the Government to treat this dispute seriously – it's time they got on with it.”

Plaid Cymru has said that a pay offer of 8% to Welsh NHS nurses is possible using existing reserves and unallocated funding.

Leader of Plaid Cymru Adam Price says that information obtained from the Finance Minister proves that Welsh Government has sufficient money to offer an 8% pay increase to nurses – more than 3% above what is currently on the table.

The current pay offer from the Welsh government provides around 4.8% uplift on average for NHS staff. To arrive at an 8% initial offer would require an extra £176m in the current financial year.

Plaid Cymru says that the money could come from a combination of the £152.3m of currently unallocated funding in the Welsh Government’s budget, a draw down from the Wales Reserve in addition to any projected under-spends in current departmental budgets.

Mr Price says that the current offer on the table – a one-off payment to nurses of an unspecified amount – will do nothing to improve the long term sustainability of the profession, nor will it help attract new entrants. The impact on next year’s budget of an increased pay offer could be funded through a combination of reduced reliance on private sector agency staff and progressive use of the Welsh Government’s income tax powers.

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has recently indicated it’s “prepared to be real about that economic climate” and is willing to negotiate on pay.

Leader of Plaid Cymru, Adam Price MS said: “A fairer pay award is not only essential, it’s possible to do – whatever the Westminster Government decides. When there is a clear way forward to increase the pay award to nurses, the only question that remains is whether the Welsh Government has the will to invest in our nurses.

“Nurses need fair pay, and this pay needs to be awarded in a way that helps ensure sustainability of the profession.

“Welsh Government has been quick to boast that in Wales, we do things differently. But when it comes to the treatment of nurses, paramedics and other NHS staff fighting for fairer pay, the Welsh Labour Government appears doomed to repeat the mistakes of the Tories in Westminster.

In the same weekend the Tories announce a one-off payment for nurses in England, without increasing the pay award, we hear that Welsh Labour Government is planning to do the same for nurses here in Wales.

“A one-off payment will not help keep nurses in the job, nor will it attract new people into nursing. Our NHS is nothing without its workers, and making a substantially improved pay offer – which is completely achievable – would show that the Welsh Government is committed to investing in the future of this essential public service on which we all depend.”

Also responding to the news that the Welsh Government has offered a one-off payment to NHS workers in order to try and end strikes by nurses and ambulance staff, Welsh Liberal Democrat Leader Jane Dodds MS said: “A one-off cost-of-living payment would be nothing but a sticking plaster and would not solve the long-term problems faced in recruitment and retention in the NHS.

“It is important to remember it isn’t just recent inflationary pressures, but the fact nurses have seen a fall in income over the last decade. Many nurses are now being forced to use food banks.

“With the numbers of vacancies increasing and people continuously leaving the nursing profession it is clear action needs to be taken to stem the tide.

“I do not accept the argument increasing nurses' pay will be detrimental to front-line services because our nurses are our frontline services.

“Without a long-term approach to recruitment, retention and pay we will be back in the same situation within a few months.”