The Yorkshire ambulance service sent redundancy notices to 400 NHS staff yesterday in a move condemned by unions as "cruel and disgraceful." The trust said it needed to reorganise staffing to meet government targets and establish a "best in class" service. It hoped compulsory redundancies could be kept to a minimum and paramedics would not be affected.
Simon Worthington, the acting chief executive, said 400 employees in management, administrative and support roles were being given 90 days' notice of redundancy if they could not secure redeployment. He added: "This makes the timing of this message to staff very difficult as it is so close to Christmas."
The trust was established in July, merging Yorkshire's three ambulance services. The job losses were understood to be the most extensive in the ambulance service, after the loss of more than 20,000 posts in hospital trusts across England.
Mr Worthington said: "We fully anticipate that the majority of people will be re-deployed within Yorkshire ambulance service. We have been filling vacancies with fixed-term contracts and temporary staff, so we hope that compulsory redundancies will be kept to a minimum ... We appreciate that this may be a difficult time for affected staff. We will be working to complete the restructuring as soon as possible but within appropriate timescales to ensure a fair and consistent process."
Neil Derrick, senior officer of the GMB, said: "We utterly condemn the timing and the content of the directive today from the Yorkshire ambulance service, which puts essential backroom staff at risk days before Christmas without any consultation or discussions with the trade unions. The staff who are at risk of redundancy include the control room staff, patient transport organisers and vehicle mechanics."
A spokeswoman for Unison said: "This is an outrageous thing to do just five days before Christmas. It is cruel to do this to staff and disgraceful that managers have not had the decency to talk to unions. We have been trying to contact them but they have not returned our calls."
