AN INDUSTRIAL dispute at the Ambulance and Rescue Service has been called off as staff, unions and management combine to fight budget cuts.

Prospect and Unite are currently in talks with industrial relations officers to resolve issues surrounding the implementation of new working patterns.

New shift rosters are designed to improve efficiency and reduce overtime and the proposed implementation had created friction with the staff, with a dispute being notified, but this has now been called off.

The service gets 75% of its funding from Health and Social Services via Treasury and the remainder comes from a combination of subscription charges, public donations and income from its Health Care Equipment Centre.

The grant it receives from the States looks likely to drop this year by £50,000 to £2,050,000.

Chief ambulance officer Jon Beausire (pictured) outlined the talks.

‘They include a team-based line management system, to improve staff education by rostering formal training courses and to provide demand-led flexible staff resources to meet obligations in the service level agreement with HSSD.

‘The service will continue to maintain its standards and is constantly looking at ways of doing more with less without compromising pre-hospital care,’ he said.

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