- Conference
- 2012 Health Care Service Group Conference
- Date
- 16 December 2011
- Decision
- Carried as Amended
Ambulance staff work in uncontrollable and challenging environments. They are often subjected to abuse and injuries undertaking their duties. The Government doesn’t consider ambulance services to be emergency services and describes them as essential services.
With the current proposed changes to retirement age this presents a difficult and a seemingly impossible challenge to our members working in ambulance services to reach retirement age. Evidence suggests that ambulance staff face a higher than average risk of ill health retirement and many never see a quality retirement due to long term health conditions brought about through their duties.
We therefore call on conference to:
1)Continue to highlight the risks and difficulties facing ambulance staff in working longer to reach retirement
2)Support the work of UNISON’s ambulance sector in informing the Health Group Service Executive on ambulance related issues around retirement and long term health concerns
3)Campaign to align the retirement age of ambulance staff to their equivalent emergency services colleagues
4)Support the NHS sector pension negotiators to highlight the risks and difficulties facing ambulance staff in their negotiations.