INDUSTRIAL action by North-East ambulance crews hits a peak this weekend, according to union officials.

An overtime ban introduced by members of the Unison union ten days ago means that up to 21 frontline emergency ambulances will be off the road over the weekend.

That was the claim of Ray McDermott, of the North-East Ambulance Service (NEAS) branch of Unison.

He said: "They are really going to suffer this weekend with up to 21 vehicles missing because of our overtime ban."

While the entire North-East region from Darlington in the South to Berwick in the North will be affected by the missing crews, Mr McDermott predicted that County Durham would be worst hit, partly because of a high number of vacancies.

The dispute with NEAS is over the question of whether staff should be paid during meal breaks. Unison argues that its members are being asked to respond to calls during meal breaks even when they are not being paid.

Simon Featherstone, chief executive of the NEAS, said he could not understand why the dispute was continuing.

He said: "We are offering a 37-hour working week and more holidays. We will not seek to require staff to work during meal breaks but we will offer them a £20 payment each time if they have to."

Mr Featherstone said the pay and conditions package on the table involved pay increases of between nine and 28 per cent, backdated to June 1, last year.

He said the service provided to the public was still safe and response rates to life-threatening 999 call-outs since the dispute started averaged out at 69.1 per cent, compared to a national target of 75 per cent.