HUNDREDS of ambulance workers in Somerset and Devon could go on strike later this year.

The South West Ambulance Service staff are among 15,000 ambulance employees nationwide being asked to vote on whether to take industrial action.

The GMB union, which is running the ballot, says the Government has been told for years that "things are unsafe" and workers are poorly paid.

Voting among GMB members starts today (Monday, October 24) and runs until Tuesday, November 29.

GMB acting national secretary Rachel Harrison said workers are angry over the Government’s imposed 4 per cent pay award - "another massive real terms pay cut" – as well as "unsafe staffing levels across the ambulance service".

She added: "Ambulance workers don’t do this lightly - and this would be the biggest ambulance strike for 30 years.

"But more than ten years of pay cuts, plus the cost-of-living crisis, means workers can’t make ends meet. They are desperate.

"But 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?”