PENSIONS –EC recommends strike ballot
Recall conference will be held February 16 to decide on strike action over Government’s planned cuts to pension scheme
The Union has started moves towards a co-ordinated campaign with over one million local government workers. The Executive Council today decided to hold a special meeting of the union’s conference on 16 February and are recommending a ballot for strike action over plans to cut firefighter pensions.
The union is demanding to know why fire crews are being offered a worse deal than the other 999 services. Police and ambulance have all secured protection for those in their existing pension schemes.
FBU General Secretary Matt Wrack said: “Fire crews feel they have been kicked in the teeth. Politicians are quick to publicly praise our skills and dedication while at the same time trying to pick-pocket our pensions.
“Police and ambulance have been granted protection for current members of their pension schemes. We don’t understand why we are being singled out for worse treatment and the public will not understand it either.
“We have asked ministers to answer that question at a face-to-face meeting but they have not replied. There will be no dispute if we are treated fairly and at the moment we are not.
Yes to strike action
“We are planning a recall of our conference and asking it to back calls for strike action. We want to co-ordinate our campaign with over a million other public service workers who want to protect their pensions.”
Kick in the teeth
The Government’s plans are a kick in the teeth to firefighters. Politicians are quick to publicly praise our performance while at the same time trying to pick-pocket our pensions.
Why is the fire service the ONLY 999 service which has not been offered ring-fenced protection for existing members of the pension scheme? Police and ambulance have been granted such protection.
We have taken responsibility for our pension future. We have paid 11% of our pay – before tax – to pay for our pensions. That is much more than almost any other group of employees in the public or private sector – judges, for example, pay a maximum of 3%.
Expensive? No!
Expensive? NO, fire authorities get fire service pensions ON THE CHEAP.
One in three operational firefighters are in fact TOTALLY EXCLUDED from joining the Firefighters Pension Scheme. We have had to take a case to the House of Lords to challenge that.
Where has our money gone? Our SCHEME has NO FUND. All of our VERY HIGH contributions and the employers’ contributions have ALL been spent. For many years the money being paid by us to the scheme greatly outweighed the money being spent.
Government planned reforms
- Raising the minimum retirement age from 50 to 55 for anyone retiring after 30 March 2013.
- Cut ill-health retirement benefits.
- Make it more difficult to get an ill-health pension following an injury in service.
- The retirement age for deferred pension will be raised to 65.
- A worse scheme for new entrants with a retirement age of 60.
Controls campaign – East Anglia
Controversial plans to move Norfolk's fire control centre to Cambridge will put lives in danger because no local risk assessment has been carried out.
The warning from the FBU came after a Freedom of Information (FoI) request by the Evening News revealed that the Government had not investigated how the proposals to stop handling emergency calls at Hethersett would affect the county.
Neil Day, brigade secretary of the Norfolk Fire Brigades Union (FBU), said: "Undoubtedly the lack of a local risk assessment will put lives in danger.
"The important thing is to realise how the structure of the fire service works. Without a local risk assessment it would be impossible for Government to know the consequences of this merger.
Risk assessment crucial
"An assessment should have been carried out."
Using FoI powers to request previously confidential information, the Evening News asked Government what risk assessment has been carried out into the planned merger of the East of England's fire control centres.
The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM) replied to say that no such assessment had been carried out, because it was a national initiative.
Currently all the county's emergency fire calls are handled by a control centre in Hethersett, but by 2008 the Government says the work will be transferred more than 60 miles away to an industrial estate in Cambridge.
Mr Day said: "A risk assessment would have taken into account the entire process of dealing with a fire, from the first call to getting a fire engine on the scene.
"They would have been able to identify how dealing with calls from outside the county would impact on the service.
Blind intent
"The fact is the Government was intent on getting these mergers through and it was not going to let anything get in the way."
Proposals to stop handling emergency fire calls from Norfolk comes at the same time as Government presses ahead with plans to merge East Anglia's police forces.
The East of England's new central control room, which will handle emergency calls from Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire, is one of seven such mergers across the country.
The Government says the new arrangement, which will be accompanied by the loss of hundreds of control room jobs, will equip the fire service for the demands of the 21st century.
Mr Day added: "If Norfolk's fire service was failing then I could understand the need for these changes, but it is not.
"There's a real issue that a lack of local knowledge in the new control rooms will put people's lives at risk."
Job losses
At present about 30 control room staff are based at Hethersett, Norfolk Fire Service says it is unclear how many will lose their jobs, with workers having to decide whether to apply for new jobs at the Cambridge centre.
In an official response to our FoI request, the ODPM said: "The proposal to implement regional control centres is a national Government policy and as such a risk assessment was not necessary.
No consultation
Harry Humphrey, Norfolk County Council's cabinet member for Fire and Community Protection, said: "This decision was made nationally and we were not consulted at all.
"However, a business case has been made and the Government says new technology will allow the new centres to work effectively, there is already a similar arrangement for London.
"Much of the reasoning was made on the basis that new centres were required to cope with the terrorist threat."
David Worsley, deputy chief fire officer for Norfolk, said: "The Regional FiReControl Project is a national Government scheme and decisions around feasibility and assessments of risk were taken at a national level by central Government.
First class service
"The people of Norfolk enjoy a first class fire service mobilising and call handling system delivered by highly professional staff and we will continue to work hard locally to ensure that level of service is maintained and enhanced in the future."
www.eveningnews24.co.uk/
Control Campaign – what you can do
The Union yesterday made its submission to the parliamentary inquiry into Government plans to regionalise emergency fire control.
Members are urged to:
- Keep your MP informed of the issues and any new developments in the campaign
- Get as many signatures as possible for the petition against the establishment of remote regional fire controls - petitions are on the control care website and are being sent to all members in the next issue of Firefighter magazine
- Attend your branch meetings to ensure you are up to date and to participate in the campaign
- Keep informed of the campaign and obtain campaign materials from www.controlcare.org.uk, the FBU’s official website for the campaign.
Union slams McGuirk over Merseyside cuts
The Union has slammed comments by Merseyside chief fire officer Tony McGuirk that he will have to make cuts to the service to reduce the authority’s budget deficit.
McGuirk says this is necessary due to rising pension costs and yet another disappointing funding settlement for the region's fire service. Earlier this week he reportedly travelled to London to once again plead with the Government for extra financial support for his service. A change in the funding formula has hit those services with a high number of full-time firefighters, including Liverpool and London.
CFO McGuirk told local press that he would have to reduce his staffing numbers through natural wastage or voluntary redundancies to help bridge a current budget deficit of more than £7m.
Not enough staff
But FBU brigade secretary Les Skarratts says that on 500 occasions last year stations in the region, which were scheduled to have two engines, were reduced to one because there were not enough crew to staff them.
He has also pointed out in the first year of the Integrated Risk Management Plan, Merseyside suffered half the job losses of firefighters in the whole country.
The union believes that has left the service at full stretch with a greater chance than ever before of not reaching an incident on time.
Herts cuts decision approaching
Next month, Hertfordshire fire chiefs will meet to decide the fate of Radlett fire station in Hertfordshire and its 14 retained firefighters.
The county council's cabinet will meet at county hall, in Hertford, to consider whether or not to rubber-stamp its closure plan which has sparked a fierce public opposition.
The proposal was first unveiled in Hertfordshire's Integrated Risk Management Plan at the end of July, and since then a campaign has been raging in the village to keep the station open.
Feathers ruffled
Voices were raised and feathers were ruffled at a passionate open meeting in October. The grilling they received from members of the public left Chief Fire Officer Roy Wilsher and colleagues red-faced and lost for words.
A repeat performance was seen just a month later as Hertsmere borough councillors bombarded Roy Wilsher with questions about the effects the closure would have on the surrounding areas, such as Borehamwood and Elstree.
Hertfordshire's top fire officer always vehemently denied that the closure of the part-time station would increase emergency response times or put residents at risk.
Despite Hertsmere's MP, James Clappison, throwing his weight behind the Save Radlett Fire Station campaign, the bosses at county hall appeared to be standing by their proposals.
Pushing ahead with cuts despite Buncefield
Even after the Buncefield Oil Depot fire in Hemel Hempstead described as the biggest blaze in peacetime Europe which saw Hertfordshire's firefighters stretched to the limit, leaving massive areas of the county uncovered, they remained committed to the plan.
Whether the rest of the cabinet will agree is yet to be seen, but if the restructuring is given the go-ahead, Radlett Fire Station will close on April 1, as part of a series of cuts throughout the county.
Any knock-on effects will no doubt unravel in the months that follow. Those fighting the closure fear Borehamwood's firefighters could be placed under too much pressure because they would have to attend incidents usually covered by Radlett.
www.borehamwoodtimes.co.uk
Solidarity with Notts members fighting co-responding
Nott members are paying a minimum voluntary levy of £5 per week into a Hardship Fund to assist the 34 members at Retford.
Send your donation to:
BANK DETAILS: NAT WEST BANK PLC
ACCOUNT NAME: NOTTS HARDSHIP FUND
ACCOUNT NO: 68013868
SORT CODE: 55 – 61 – 17
Stop the slaughter of trade unionists - Stop UK military aid to Colombia
Encourage your MP to sign Justice for Colombia/TUC’s EDM number 355, which calls on the British Government to end their secretive military assistance project in Colombia. This is an issue of life and death for many trade unionists, teachers, community workers, firefighters and predominently poor men, women and children who continue to be murdered in Colombia.
Visit www.fbu.org.uk and follow the ‘Lobby Your MP’ link. For more on the campaign visit:www.justiceforcolombia.org
Subscribe to the e-bulletin
Get the e-bulletin and other FBU campaign news by email. Go to www.fbu.org.uk, type in your email address on the bottom left hand side of the home page and hit the “Sign Up” button.
Last Modified: 7/04/08 10:50,
