Chief Executive 148 Dutton Road

Mariella Dexter Steve Smart

Chief Executive 148 Dutton Road

AGW WDC - SHA Stockwood

Bristol

BS14 8BU

Ref: A4C

28 December 2005

Dear Mariella

Before entering into the main content of this letter, I must first express my disappointment at not receiving a response/acknowledgment from you to my last letter dated 5.12.05 and I would ask that a response/acknowledgement of this letter be afforded to me/the UNISON Branch of Avon Ambulance Service.

My main reason for writing is in connection to the Technician factor dispute. It was the firm opinion of the Branch, its A4C leads and the Trust itself (with this fact borne out by the AAS A4C partnership newsletter issued, the extract of which I have included for your attention) that the task of the SHA appointed panel was to offer a qualified JE opinion on the disputed factor 9.

Extract from AAS A4C Newsletter

An independent panel of trained job evaluators comprising 2 staff side and 2 management side representatives from non Ambulance Trusts elsewhere in the country will meet shortly to review the factors on which the internal consistency checking panel failed to agree.

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All other factors had been agreed in partnership and this (full agreement on other factors) was discussed and ratified at our last meeting with both yourself and the best practice facilitator Bill McMillan.

It was agreed that a decision on factor 9 would be binding regardless of any financial implications it may have.

Consequently the panel afforded factor 9 a level 2. This was in keeping with that which staff side believed to be correct.

As a result of the corrective factor 9 alteration, this, when coupled with the staff and management sides already agreed 15 other factors, results in the technicians of AAS obtaining a band 5 match.

Subsequently we the UNISON Branch of AAS expect this result to be binding and that band 5 be afforded to the Technician in AAS.

Any alteration to the other factors is, we believe, an infringement and outside of the process agreed and we both object to and reject its arrived upon authority/authenticity.

Partnership JE staff – staff side and management side – have, over the past year worked hard and diligently to introduce A4C and the alteration to their agreed upon Technician JE findings/conclusions and the consequent reneging on the binding agreementundermines all that effort.

The banding of Technicians has become a long drawn out affair nationally. At the heart of this is the fact that Technicians were allocated aninaccurate, ill suited national profile of band 4.

The role of a Technician in today’s ambulance service has greater worth and value (with regard to levels/points achieved)then was attributed to it through the national profile.

Subsequently there has been a strong staff side call and collective conviction nationally that the role/job of a Technician is deserving of a band 5. For the record, this call has also been mirrored (agreed with) by many Ambulance Trust managers.

I will not enter, in this correspondence,into the merits of the banding. What I will say, with confidence, is that a band 5 placement for Technicians is, through honest evaluation endeavours, irrefutably beyond question to the UNISON A4C JE personnel and Branch Executive of Avon Ambulance Service.

Despite the fact that A4C staff side JE leads inalmost every ambulance Trust in the country (if not already placing it in band 5 – and in some instances with full partnership agreement) are strongly and meritoriously calling for a band 5 placement, there has, on the face of it, been anintensive,collaborativeeffort, both locally and nationally,to deny this.

It is a discreditable state of affairs and it is strongly suspected by the Branch that cost saving motives lie at the very heart of the matter.

In conclusion, I would assert, on behalf of the Technician UNISON members in AAS, that a band 5 placement has been quantified by the SHA appointed panel and has been done so on the basis that factor 9 was correctively altered.

This was the only factor in dispute and therefore the only task asked or expected of them was to deliver their JE findings on this factor.

Consequently, we as a Branch, have no option but to decline the dubious and doubtfully arrived upon conclusions of the panel and request that the Technician of AAS be awarded a morally worthy band 5.

As a staff group, the pivotal, praiseworthy role of the Technician in Avon has been distastefully demeaned and debased.

They have justifiable cause to feel demoralised and I would appeal on their behalf that an objective, logical approach be adopted in the determination of their banding.

As a future co-merged working partner and possible UNISON representative to Technicians in Wiltshire and Gloucestershire, I on behalf of the staff concerned, would ask that an SHA led review/reassessmentbe conducted into the band 4 placement ascribed to their Technicians.

I would also strongly contend that the time has most surely come for a national investigation/enquiry into the banding of Technicians.

A band 4 arrangement is being staunchly disputed nationally and all that steadfast resistance cannot – I repeat “cannot” be dismissed as being without integrity and creditable good cause.

To update you on the current status with the UNISON Branch and its members here in Avon – we are approaching crisis levels with regard to A4C and its associated JE and entitlement issues.

UNISON A4C JE personnel (including Dave Colman, the UNISON JE lead) have suspended their involvement in A4C/JE process and will remain detached from JE until such time that some “called for by them” integrity is brought to the system.

As a Branch we are no closer to obtaining/securing for our members their rightful entitlements on excess hours, mileage/subsistence rates or bank holiday (when worked) TOIL and there has also been no recognition or acknowledged need to correct the inequitable assimilation of salaries.

In keeping with our - the UNISON Branch of AAS - previously declared course of action on the matter, we will instigate a formal ballot at the turn of the year, with a view to balloting UNISON members on industrial action.

It is with regret that we take this action, but the protracted, dismissive way in which the issues have been dealt with, leave us with little choice.

Yours sincerely

Steve Smart

On behalf of UNISON Branch Executive, Avon Ambulance Service