ESSEX ambulance workers are to vote on whether they will strike over pay today.

Members of the GMB union are being balloted in the coming weeks amid continuing industrial unrest in many sectors of the economy.

NHS workers in other unions, including nurses, are also being asked if they want to take strike action over pay.

Many ambulance trusts across the country are set to take part in the GMB ballot, and that includes the East of England Ambulance Service.

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The GMB said its members were angry over the government’s imposed 4 per cent pay award, describing it as “another massive real terms pay cut.”

Rachel Harrison, GMB acting national secretary, said: “Ambulance workers don’t do this lightly and this would be the biggest ambulance strike for 30 years.

“But more than 10 years of pay cuts, plus the cost-of-living crisis, means workers can’t make ends meet.

“They are desperate. This is much more about patient safety at least as much about pay.

“Delays up to 26 hours and 135,000 vacancies across the NHS mean a third of GMB ambulance workers think a delay they’ve been involved with has led to a death.

“Ambulance workers have been telling the Government for years things are unsafe.

“No one is listening.

“What else can they do?”