Northern Ireland ambulance service declares major incident over strike
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Version 0 of 1. The Northern Ireland ambulance service has declared a major incident in response to the number of staff threatening to strike on Friday. Ambulance personnel are among tens of thousands of public service workers taking part in the 24-hour action over Stormont spending cuts. The declaration of a major incident activates contingency protocols that compel staff to turn up for work. The NIAS Trust had reached an initial agreement with trade unions with the aim of providing cover for emergencies only throughout Friday, but the service declared the incident late last night after it said it had been “inundated” with calls from staff saying they would not be working. It said without taking the step, cities and towns including Belfast, Derry, Omagh, Enniskillen and Lisburn would have been without ambulance cover from midnight. An NIAS spokesman said: “The Northern Ireland Ambulance Service has tonight been forced to declare a major incident to maintain a safe level of ambulance cover throughout the planned period of industrial action on Friday 13 March. “An already precarious position following agreement with trade unions has deteriorated to a situation where levels of cover are critical from midnight tonight. Belfast, Derry, Omagh Enniskillen, Lisburn are among towns that would be without ambulance cover from midnight, with other areas being left with seriously reduced levels of cover. This has placed these communities at serious risk in terms of ambulance provision. “Despite their trade unions agreeing that staff would respond to life-threatening emergencies, the Trust has been inundated with staff phoning in to say: ‘I am withdrawing my labour.’ “The Trust has been unable to illicit timely responses from trade union colleagues to communications informing them of the situation. “NIAS has exhausted all alternative contingency options and lives would be at risk if we allowed the situation to deteriorate further. The Trust would expect staff to report for duty in response to this major incident in line with protocols agreed with trade union representatives.” The mass strike by health, education, transport and civil service workers protesting against job cuts and the Stormont House political deal began at midnight. Union leaders have warned the action will be the biggest in many years. Workers are angry at Stormont budgets that have cut millions of pounds from public spending, a voluntary redundancy scheme to reduce the civil service by 20,000, and a proposed cut in corporation tax in Northern Ireland. Public transport services across Northern Ireland will be cancelled. Operator Translink will be unable to run any buses or trains. Members of the Unison, Nipsa and GMB unions working in health, education, the civil service, transport and a range of other public services will strike. The fate of the redundancy scheme, next year’s Stormont budget and the devolution of corporation tax powers from Westminster to Belfast are shrouded in uncertainty after a political row over welfare reform threatened the Stormont House agreement in which those proposals were included. |