In addition to the NHS offer, the strength of industrial action in the ambulance sector led to the following proposals being added.
Ambulance service proposal
An additional annex to the proposed agreement outlines plans for the ambulance employers to commit to working in partnership with the ambulance trade unions (UNISON GMB and UNITE) to seek to resolve the following issues.
In relation to Sickness / Unsocial hours allowance payment; to curtail discussions for the move away from Annex E unsocial hours enhancements. To curtail discussions around a move towards section 2a unsocial hours under A4C. To suspend immediately any further work to test, in the High Court, the national agreement on sick pay which relates to the NHS Employers and the Ambulance Service Employers view that the original agreements included the Ambulance Service Sector. This issue would instead be remitted to the wider talks on further AfC reform.
Ambulance Employers to introduce a scheme whereby they will match the value of additional pension contributions made by front line ambulance staff to enable them to take their 2015 pension unreduced at 65. For instance if the cost of this was 4%, the employer would pay 2%.
Ambulance employers to work with the Ambulance Unions to address the current recruitment and retention issues for 999 operational road staff, including considering changes to use of job profiles and bandings or through application of National Recruitment and Retention Premia to appropriate job roles.
Ambulance Employers will take forward with Ambulance Unions work a specific work stream under the NHS Staff Council Working Longer Review identifying the specific challenges for front line ambulance staff of the increase in pension age and how they can be addressed.
More details are on the NHS Employers website.