DRIVERS working for a patient transport firm are to strike.

It comes after a decision by bosses to lay off staff taken on in the wake of a rival's collapse.

The Argus can exclusively reveal that ambulance drivers at Docklands Medical Services, (DMS) which works under contract to Coperforma Ltd to provide non-emergency hospital patient transport around the county, will walk out on Monday September 5.

The 60 GMB members voted 78 per cent in support of strike action.

Almost all were employed by the NHS as drivers for the South East Coast Ambulance Service until the service was privatised on April 1, with Coperforma providing technical support and administration, and a series of private ambulance firms providing transport on the ground.

One such firm, V M Langfords, went into administration in July and DMS offered to take on all their staff on contracts equal to their Langfords terms - which were better than existing DMS contracts.

However in a letter to staff distributed yesterday, DMS chief executive Christopher Arnall said that a hoped-for boost in business had not materialised and therefore, he said, "I am not in a position to sustain the current headcount or the previously mentioned terms and conditions."

A spokesman for the union said: "What Christopher Arnall needs to do is immediately reinstate staff, and promise terms and conditions won't be affected."