  |
Ambulance dispute escalates tomorrow
|
by PANORAMA reporter
The ambulance dispute is to escalate tomorrow, when the aggrieved staff will be taking a series of measures as part of their claim to have their shift work status recognised.
As from 8am tomorrow, all union members will refuse to carry out the duties of Duty Officer and will also refuse to carry out any maintenance or cleaning of the ambulance station.Further, they will refuse to clean the exterior of any of the ambulances.Control duties will not be carried out on night shift, which means that there will be no Controller.During day shift, there will be no answering of any monitored phones, apart from the emergency line.The ACTS union has also approved that Leading Ambulance Officers will not take over or hand over the station. The staff will also refuse to carry out local transports after 5pm Monday to Friday - and there will be none at the weekend.As PANORAMA has been predicting, the situation is already poised to go from bad to worse. The workers have been wearing t-shirts saying 'Ambulance Yes, Ambulanvia No', following allegations that they have been threatened with Spanish ambulancemen being brought over from across the border if they go on strike.
Meanwhile, there is a feeling that health minister Ernest Britto has placed the St John chief executive officer Dennis Duarte as the go-between the St John and the Government.
The St John is contracted to provide an ambulance service to the Gibraltar health authority.
The staff are saying that they do not want a pay rise as such, but they want the benefits relating to shift workers applying to them.
|
|
|
|
