The government should lower retirement age for ambulance staff, says UNISON

The government is being urged to lower the retirement age for ambulance staff to bring them into line with other emergency services workers, says UNISON today (Monday). Paramedics will this afternoon travel to Whitehall to hand the health and social care secretary Matt Hancock a petition. It has been signed by more than 250,000 people and is calling for their retirement age to be reduced from 67 to 60. Ambulance workers face extreme physical and mental pressures, says UNISON, including shifting from day to night rotas, lifting and carrying patients, and attending traumatic incidents. But they currently retire seven years later than other parts of the emergency services. Police officers for example can retire at 60, as can firefighters. The petition was started by paramedic Matt Fisher (52) after the loss of his colleague 63-year-old Ian Canning who died just weeks into retirement and just before the birth of his first great-grandchild Theo. Grandfather-of-nine Ian was an incident response officer. He had spent nearly 40 years working for the London Ambulance Service (LAS) dealing with incidents including the Grenfell Tower fire and the 7/7 bombings. Matt said: “Ian never got the chance to meet Theo or see his grandchildren grow up. “He was passionate about his work but should have been spending time with his family. Not out in all weathers and at all hours dealing with harrowing incidents. “He didn’t get to enjoy any of his retirement – just three weeks after his la...
Source: UNISON Health and safety news - Category: Occupational Health Authors: Tags: Press release health Source Type: news