Ambulance redundancies are halted

Union officials have said there is no immediate threat of redundancies at the Yorkshire Ambulance Service.

Health chiefs had said that up to 400 jobs could be lost to help save money.

Staff working in management, administration and support were told by post before Christmas their positions could go at the end of March.

Redundancies are still possible, but would happen over a longer time frame and health bosses have now said any job losses would be a last resort.

The workers will now receive a second letter over the next few days, telling them to ignore the contents of the first.

Ambulance trust officials said that over the last fortnight they had been in talks with the unions and the restructuring process would restart from scratch.

Richard Bedford, of the Transport and General Workers Union, said they were pleased with the latest news, but vowed to continue pressing for the best deal for ambulance staff.