Justice for firefighter pensions: legal, political campaign continues

Firefighter fatality Firefighter Steve Capp, who served as a wholetime firefighter at Hadleigh Fire Station in Essex and as a retained  firefighter at Yateley Fire Station in Hampshire, was tragically killed in a serious road traffic collision on London Road, Hadleigh on Wednesday 26 March while travelling home from duty in Essex. Crews from Hadleigh and neighbouring stations attended the incident. Steve was later transferred to Southend hospital but died from his injuries. Steve leaves a partner, Julie, and five children. The Union's thoughts are with Steve’s family, friends and colleagues at this difficult time. Further details will be provided as they become available.

As the Union continues to battle for Justice for Firefighter Pensions on all fronts, progress has been achieved in securing political support in Northern Ireland and Wales, following the breakthrough in Scotland.

In Northern Ireland officials have now lobbied senior figures in all the parties -   DUP, Sinn Fein, UUP, SDLP, Alliance, Green and PUP - in the Northern Ireland Assembly.

An Assembly Motion has been drafted, in the joint names of DUP and SDLP, and a full debate on this will take place in the next few weeks.

The motion, lodged at Stormont on March 11, notes the “detrimental” impact of the 2006 guidance and “calls upon the Minister of Health, Social Services and Public Safety to ensure that the arrangements contained within the CLG Guidance promulgated in 2004, should continue to provide framework in respect of the Firefighters Pension Scheme Order (Northern Ireland) 2007.”

Says Jim Quinn, regional secretary of FBU Northern Ireland : “Regional officials in Northern Ireland and Executive Council member Jim Barbour have made a concerted effort at lobbying all parties in the Northern Ireland assembly, meeting with senior figures in each of the seven parties. They all gave a favourable response and were supportive of our campaign on ill-health pensions.

“We are pleased that this has culminated in a motion to be placed before the assembly with cross community and cross party support. Hopefully the assembly will confirm this support for the Union’s campaign for justice for firefighters’ pensions.”

Wales

Following efforts by FBU officials on the political front in Wales, close on a third of the 60 Welsh Assembly Members (AMs) have signed a Statement of Opinion - equivalent to Westminster’s EDM - calling the Welsh Assembly Government to issue separate guidance on ill-health retirements for firefighters.

The Statement of Opinion, raised by Val Lloyd and Ann Jones, states that the changes of guidance brought in by the Department of Communities and Local Government (CLG) in 2006 “opposes changes to the Firefighters Pension Scheme's conditions relating to ill health retirement” as it “places unfair pressure on firefighters and calls on the Welsh Assembly Government to do all it can to amend the scheme.”

The current position of Brian Gibbons, Minister for Social Justice and Local Government, is to await the conclusions of the Review Group established by Parmjit Dhanda of the Department of Communities and Local Government, but if this doesn’t lead to a satisfactory settlement of the issue he would be minded to consider issuing separate advice or guidance.

 FBU Wales Regional Secretary Grant Mayos said: “This issue is fundamental to trade unions, and is fundamental to firefighters. We work in conditions others would see as major hazards. Every time the call bells go, you have to ask yourself ‘if I get injured here am I going to be looked after. Am I going to get a pension at all, how will I provide for my family?”

“Firefighters in Wales will be thinking twice before committing themselves into risk areas if this is the way they can expect to be treated.

“And to those fire authorities out there struggling with the issue of retained (RDS) recruitment, if they think that this message is going to encourage people to join the retained service, or the fire service in general, then they had better think again.”

FBU Wales Executive Council member Mike Smith said. “We are not prepared to sit back and watch our members thrown onto the scrap heap and to be left to fend for themselves. This is clearly wrong and the Welsh Assembly has the power to effectively overturn the current wording of the CLG guidance in favour of the previous 2004 wording.

“Dr Brian Gibbons has that power if he was so minded. What is the point in having devolved powers for the fire service in Wales if they are not prepared to use those powers and hang onto central government’s coat tails?”

“We want this guidance overturned for all our members in the UK, but if Wales can follow Scotland’s lead and change the wording, then we may be able to achieve justice for all.”

Legal challenge

A judgement on the Union’s legal challenge to the new Government guidance on ill-health pensions is expected within weeks.

The challenge to the new guidance – which means badly injured and disabled firefighters face being sacked and their pension delayed until they are 60 - began at the High Court on 6 and 7 March.

A Judicial Review – the only way to challenge the 2006 guidance - started after three disabled and retired firefighters had their pensions removed by London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority (LFEPA).

The threat of an injunction forced the service to start paying the pensions again and pay back the money they had stopped. On the morning the case started they agreed to pay interest on the money they had stopped.

The decision of the judge is “reserved” meaning it will be made in writing at a later date. Part of the case was adjourned to a later date.

The 2006 guidance effectively makes it impossible for any firefighter to get an ill health pension even if they are seriously disabled. And if there is no job to which they can be re-deployed the rules force fire authorities to sack them with no pension or other payment.

Government: 2004 guidance wrong

The Government now says the earlier guidance they issued in 2004 and another amendment to the scheme were wrong. They now say the guidance they issued in 2006 which has caused the current problems is correct.

In ministerial statements, the Government says it is not its intention that injured and disabled firefighters could be sacked without a pension. But in the court and in witness statements they argue that sacking injured and disabled firefighters on capability grounds is an acceptable “exit route”.

The case challenges the validity of the pensions guidance issued by Government in 2006 and the actions of the Board of Medical Referees in these three cases. The Union’s stated view is that it is long established law that no guidance (formal or informal) can re-write the statutory provisions the guidance relates to.

The two different justifications given by the CLG for the 2006 guidance were contradictory. One justification (on issuing the 2006 guidance) was that fire services were successful in reducing the number of ill-health and injury retirements, the other (later) justification was that fire services were not successful in reducing these awards.

In any event, the union’s barrister told the court, the most recent figures for ill-health and injury retirements in the fire service showed these retirements were running at 3.8 per thousand members of the scheme. This was a significant reduction from the figure of 15.7 per thousand in 2003/04.

This is comparable to that of senior civil servants whose ill-health and injury retirement rate is 3.1 per thousand members of the scheme. The union said the Board of Medical Referees exceeded its powers and LFEPA should not have relied on their decision and taken the unprecedented step of stopping these pensions.

The union quoted Minister Parmjit Dhanda from the Adjournment Debate on 22 January: “it was never the intention of the Government that a firefighter who is injured should not receive an appropriate award or be left with no job or recompense.” This seems pretty clear.

But the Department appeared to distance themselves from these comments, saying they should be seen in the context of wider policy. In Civil Servant Martin Hill’s witness statement to the court (at paragraph 8) he said:

“The policy which underlies this [Mr Dhanda’s comments] is based on the recommendations of the 2000 Review of Ill Health Retirement in the Public Sector…. Specifically, those recommendations were that employers should: ….ensure that the full range of exit routes are available (ill health retirement, voluntary /compulsory redundancy, early retirement, dismissal on grounds of capability or conduct), and ensure that the most appropriate exit route is used in every case.” (our emphasis)

The Union is fighting a legal, political and industrial campaign on this issue. Members are urged to continue lobbying their MPs and to attend branch meetings to obtain the latest information on the campaign for firefighter pensions and to discuss an industrial response should the legal and political avenues not achieve a satisfactory outcome.

 

For a fuller report, visit www.fbu.org.uk and for an interview with Martin Marrion - one of three firefighters in London denied a pension under the Government’s ill-health pensions guidance - outside the High Court ahead of the hearing earlier this month: www.youtube.com/fbutube

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Cuts fight back: Humberside

MPs have expressed serious concerns about the planned cuts to Humberside fire and rescue service and criticised the consultation process followed by senior managers at the brigade.

During a parliamentary debate held at Westminster Hall on Tuesday March 18, Labour MP Shona McIsaac told Fire Minister Parmjit Dhanda and fellow MPs that the planned cuts to Humberside FRS are “some of the most severe cuts ever experienced”, and argued that such changes could put lives at risk.

Shona McIsaac, who had secured the parliamentary debate following lobbying from the FBU, lamented that over 100 firefighters would be lost, in addition to cuts made two years ago and highlighted to MPs that Hull Central Fire Station, and Sledmere, Waltham and Kirton retained fire stations would be closed and taken out of service, while Immingham West Fire Station would lose one fire engine and Goole Fire Station would see crewing of one fire engine downgraded from wholetime crewing to retained.

All this, despite the fact that in the area, aside rural communities, there was much of England's oil refining, chemical and pharmaceutical industries, as well as British Aerospace and Corus, a huge freight depot, an airport and extremely busy roads.

Consultation criticised

Criticising the consultation process, Ms McIsaac said that according to a survey she carried out in her constituency of Cleethorpes, 1,000 people opposed the cuts and just 45 people supported them.

“On behalf of my constituents, I want the plans to be rejected…The entire process is flawed. There are concerns about the FSEC computer modelling programme and there have been serious delays in making details publicly available. A whole month passed before the supporting documentation was put into the public domain, and therefore the proposals should be thrown out. Key stakeholders were not involved in the discussions and the consultation document does not stand up to detailed scrutiny. For example, although we have heard that many proposals were made for cost reasons, there are no costings in the document. How can we compare and contrast the proposals, therefore, and ask whether a certain project can be brought in under budget so that we can invest more money in another area? My background is in local government and we certainly did not produce documents that did not have costings.

“Statistics in the document are given only for one year. There are no historic data or predictions. It is difficult to make a decision when there are no predictions of trends. I have obtained historic data for Waltham and Immingham. They show that the number of incidents has gone up rather than declined. Despite that, we are considering closing fire stations, which puts the FSEC model in question.”

RTA risk understated

In concerns echoed later in the debate by other MPs, Shona McIsaac also criticised the “lack of information in the [consultation] document about road traffic accidents”, pointing out that “more [people] are likely to die in a road traffic accident than in a house fire” and specifically referred to figures which suggested “an increased risk” in the area, adding: “because of the rural nature of such areas, it takes fire and rescue services longer to get there, and those minutes are vital if we are to save lives.”

Highlighting to MPs the “huge concentration of COMAH sites” in Immingham she said: “Anyone who knows that part of the world just needs to look at the flare stacks of the two oil refineries to understand the risk that exists on the south bank of the Humber. We have to exercise a precautionary principle. The reason why we have a lot of fire stations is because if something happens it will be serious and we need to have firefighters in place. The risks are real.”

“I want every member of the fire authority to receive copies of the debate to see the strength of feeling among the communities that we represent. “

“If it is a genuine consultation, I hope that it will listen,” she said, but in pointing to the tone of the announcements of the proposed cuts, expressed the “hope that it is not a foregone conclusion.”

She added: “I say to the fire authority and to its chief, ‘Prove to us that the consultation has been genuine. Go away, look at the proposals and throw them out, because if you don't, lives will be lost.’”

Opposition “deafening”

Describing the “outcry over the closure at Waltham” as “deafening”, Shona McIsaac told MPs that there have been 18,000 signatures on a petition objecting to it and some 12,000 letters of objection have been sent in as well. Shona McIsaac also highlighted the demonstration and rally on Saturday 15 March in Grimsby, at which she spoke: “It was a good-natured march, but the message was deadly serious. At the front, four firefighters were carrying a coffin because they believe that the proposed changes to Humberside fire and rescue service could endanger lives.

“We must remember that those are the very people who head towards burning buildings when the rest of us would instinctively want to get away. They constantly put their lives on the line, and I take it seriously when they tell me that the changes will put lives at risk.”

Cuts proposals “not sound”

Ian Cawsey, Labour MP for Brigg and Goole, said he shared “the general concerns” raised by Shona McIsaac “about the whole review and the way in which the chief fire officer and the authority seek to change our fire cover in the area. Proposals for Goole were “causing enormous concern in the locality,” he said, adding however that these concerns were not restricted to Goole as “the measures have a knock-on effect on all rural areas around the town as well.” He continued: “I, and many other people, do not believe that the proposals are sound or sensible for that part of the East Riding.”

Ian Cawsey described how he heard about the proposal on Radio Humberside while travelling in his car. “I could not believe what I was being told, or the fact that, if it were true, we had had no notification of it and nothing had been said to local authorities. The whole thing came as a bolt from the blue just before everything closed down for the Christmas period. That created a number of concerns, because we were unable to get to the bottom of what was being said and done.”

Ian Cawsey met the FBU in its office in Hull “to get the perspective of the firefighters themselves” before meeting on 3 January with the chief fire officer and with councillors Doreen Engall and Darrell Barkworth, the chair and vice-chair of the fire authority. He told MPs that “the more people have heard about the proposal, the less they have liked it. They are extremely concerned about what will happen if the proposals go ahead.”

Reductions to fire cover “bizarre”

Goole is a town that has seen strong population growth in recent years as well as new development leading to many additional homes in multiple occupation, said Ian Cawley, and these “present a greater fire risk in many respects”. He added: “It is on the edge of a motorway and it has a port, and there are risks associated with both. It seems to me, and I think to most local people, that when the town is going through unprecedented growth in such a time scale, the idea of reducing its fire cover is bizarre.”

Ian Cawsey also raised concerns that firefighter safety would be compromised by the proposed cut backs.

David Davis, Conservative MP for Howden and Shadow Home Secretary, an area that depends on Goole fire station for cover, told fellow MPs that he supported the argument put forward by Ian Cawsey, and raised the issue of shortages of retained firefighters:

“There are gaps in cover during the day, particularly from noon to late afternoon. It is already difficult to recruit, but the proposal for Goole is, in many ways, a much tougher contract than the one that operates in Howden. How difficult will it be to provide the second fire engine, for [Brigg, Goole and Howden]?”

Minister “hopes” authority “considers” MPs’ concerns

Hull march and rally this Saturday! This weekend will see a further march and rally against the planned cuts in Humberside following the highly successful event in Grimsby on 15 March. Assemble for the march and rally in Hull this Saturday 29 March 2008 at 11.30am at the Cannons Health Centre Car Park, Kingston Park, HU1 2TX. The march kicks off at 12.00 midday and culminates around 12.45 in the Queen Victoria Square. Local MPs and councillors will be speaking, alongside FBU General Secretary Matt Wrack. FBU President Mick Shaw and National Officer Sean Starbuck will also be attending.

Fire minister Parmjit Dhanda refused to “enter into the detail” of local decisions, because, he argued, “the whole point” of IRMPs was to “allow local communities, authorities and fire and rescue services to make the decisions…It is not my duty to make the case for the local fire and rescue authority; it must do that in order to convince local people.”

However, in replying to concerns about the FSEC modelling system used by Humberside, among a number of fire authorities, he stated:

“It is important to get across the fact that FSEC is merely a tool created in 2004 and is not binding on local authorities, which can find their own methodologies, if they have their own views on how decisions should be made locally. I hope that I have made that clear.”

He added: “The points [MPs] made in this valuable debate will be listened to in this House and back in their constituencies, and I hope that they will be considered very carefully when the fire authority makes its decisions. “

Grimsby march and rally

On Saturday 15 March, two hundred people opposing the area's proposed fire cuts marched through the centre of Grimsby. The protesters made their voices heard along the route from the Grimsby Auditorium to the Riverhead, in the town centre.

Andy Waters, divisional secretary for the FBU in Humberside, told local reporters: "This march has been organised by the Fire Brigades' Union on behalf of the residents of Waltham.

"If the closures go ahead we will be spreading our fire cover so thin that during a major incident any back-up will be wiped out.

"We're talking about the potential loss of 110 firefighters. With those we have lost already, you are talking about the loss of 200 firefighters overall."

Protesters carried a coffin which Mr Waters said symbolised "the death knell of the community fire service". More: www.thisisgrimsby.co.uk

North Lincs councillors reject plans

At a meeting on 20 March, the full North Lincolnshire Council (Unitary Authority) voted unanimously to oppose the cuts proposed by Humberside Fire Authority. A motion was put forward by the Labour group Secretary Steve Swift opposing the cuts and following a debate, 36 out of 36 councillors present supported the motion to oppose the cuts

Following the meeting, Ian Murray, regional secretary for FBU Yorkshire and Humberside, said. “Not a single councillor spoke in favour of the savage cuts proposals of Humberside’s chief fire officer and when the motion opposing the cuts went to the vote it was unanimously carried. This is a massive victory for our campaign and for common sense.”

For more on the FBU campaign against cuts in Hull – and an update on the campaign in Cleveland – visit www.youtube.com/fbutube

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Cuts fightback: Lothian and Borders

Concerned local residents have lodged a petition with the Scottish Parliament as part of the campaign against the reduction of fire cover and the number of wholetime firefighters from 52 to 34 in Lothian and Borders.

West Lothian council had put forward a motion to retain Livingston's second fire appliance but this was rejected by the Lothian & Borders Fire Board in February.

Four of the five local authorities on the L&B Fire Board voted to support the chief officer’s planned IRMP cuts, despite the fact that maintaining the second wholetime pump would have been at no cost.

The local authority of West Lothian, where the reduction of fire cover would see the current two wholetime pumps reduced to one wholetime and one hybrid - day staffed Monday to Friday/retained nights and weekend - offered to fund the two existing wholetime pumps.

Residents challenge downgrade

Concerned residents in The Fire Reforms Action Group have lodged a petition that calls on the Scottish Parliament  to change current legislation preventing local authorities from increasing fire cover in their individual areas should the joint board disagree. 

Says Annmargaret Watson from the group: “Our petition calls for current legislation with respect to fire and rescue services in Scotland to be brought into line with legislation for police services, as local authorities are currently able to increase police cover if they see the need, but are currently unable to do so for fire services

Prevent “desecration” of fire service

“This is a problem that will ultimately affect all of Scotland's Fire Services as the Lothian & Borders Fire Board have now set a precedent for all other fire authorities with these cuts as they strive to provide 'best value', despite the fact that Livingston Fire Station is the second busiest station in the Lothian & Borders area.

”We must prevent the desecration of Scotland's Fire Services - please sign our petition today.” Click here to sign to petition, or copy/type in the address into your web browser: http://epetitions.scottish.parliament.uk/list_petitions.asp

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