Statement by the General Secretary

Matt Wrack outlines how he intends to fulfill his election pledge on his personal earnings

FBU General Secretary Matt Wrack has issued the following statement:

“I am aware that there has been some press interest in the past few days about financial matters in the FBU. It appears that they are asking questions about my salary and the pledge I made regarding the matter when standing for election. I stated in my election address that I would take a wage ‘based on average earnings of FBU members.’

You should be aware that I have no intention of engaging in any debate with The Sun. I believe this publication is extremely hostile to trade unions. I remember the way News International treated its own employees during the dispute at Wapping in 1986 when 6,000 workers were sacked. I recall the misleading and outrageous way The Sun treated Liverpool football fans following the Hillsborough tragedy in 1989. FBU members will never forget how firefighters were attacked and vilified by this paper in 2002/03 for daring to seek a pay rise.

As stated above, while not seeking to debate with The Sun, it is now four months since my election and it is entirely appropriate that members would wish to know what action I am taking to fulfill my election pledges.

My pledge regarding salary is not intended as a criticism of any other individual. It arises from long held personal views about politics and democracy.

My salary is of course set by the Union as my employer. You should be aware that the gross salary paid to me by the FBU is £63,786. I took an early decision to establish a separate fund into which I would pay a portion of that salary.

On the basis of all of the above I have decided to set aside £1,000 per month from my FBU salary. I have established a separate bank account into which I pay this amount every month by standing order. I have included brief notes at the end of this statement which explains my thinking on the figures.

The fund established in this account is intended to be used to support trade union and Labour movement campaigns and initiatives. The very first donation was of five hundred pounds to the Suffolk Hardship Fund.

I intend to publish each year the total that has been paid into the fund and the causes to which donations have been made.

In relation to any other financial matters raised by the press, the FBU has nothing to fear. I can assure all members that we are fully committed to openness and transparency and proper democratic control over financial policies and other matters.

Notes

My decisions regarding the amount to set aside for my campaign fund were based on the following points.

1. I have done all calculations myself and do not claim that they are completely accurate. The point was to make an estimate of a figure ‘based’ on average earnings not to produce an exact average. Indeed this would be impossible to produce without access to every FBU members’ earnings.

2. I did not consider the pay of firefighters working the retained duty system. I am of course doing a full time job and was a wholetime firefighter before election. I therefore feel that the appropriate group for any comparison is with members working for the fire service full time. I therefore based my calculations on a brigade with just full time members.

3. I carried out an approximate calculation based on the wages of all employees up to SDO level.

4. This produced a figure of circa £30,000.

5. I then considered how to take account of the fact that earnings are not the same as basic wages. The above calculation did not include any allowances, overtime etc. The way the union has addressed this is by paying a flexi duty allowance to national officers in the same way as it is paid to fire service officers and outlined in the Grey Book. I therefore decided that this would be a reasonable way to take account of these issues. A 20% allowance produces £6,000 giving a new total of £36,000.

6. I then added on London weighting which is currently £4,458. I live and work in London and this is the amount paid to London firefighters. This produces a total of just over £40,000.

7. I did not complete calculations about the impact of tax, national insurance and pension contributions. Instead I simply asked a friend who earns approximately £40,000 what their take home pay was after these deductions have been made.”

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Last Modified: 7/04/08 10:50,