MERSEYSIDE FIRE CREWS BALLOT FOR STRIKE
Fire authority plans to cut 120 emergency
response firefighter posts, 15 emergency fire control operator
posts and axe four fire engines at night time.
The loss of one in ten fulltime firefighter
posts – in addition to the 68 posts lost last year - will
inevitably damage the overall operational capability of the
Merseyside fire and rescue service. Fire crews say this will
clearly compromise their safety and the safety of the public.
Fire engines would be axed at night at St Helens, Birkenhead,
Bootle and Netherton in the Liverpool City Centre.
The loss of one in ten fulltime firefighter posts – in
addition to the 68 posts lost last year - will inevitably damage
the overall operational capability of the Merseyside fire and
rescue service. Fire crews say this will clearly compromise
their safety and the safety of the public. Fire engines would
be axed at night at St Helens, Birkenhead, Bootle and Netherton
in the Liverpool City Centre.
The ballot process started today 28 July with a result due around
three weeks later. Taking into account 7 days notice of strike
action, any possible strike action may take place from the end
of August.
Talks run into the sand
Merseyside FBU secretary Les Skarratts said: “Talks aimed
at avoiding a dispute have been well mannered but they have
run into the sand. Councillors and senior managers are determined
to push through these cuts and Merseyside fire crews are equally
determined to stop them. You cannot lose one in ten full time
posts – on top of the 68 lost last year – and that
not have an effect. The view of professional fire crews in Merseyside
is that these cuts will impact on our safety and the safety
of the public.
Firefighters at risk
“Merseyside fire crews will be much more thinly spread.
Back up crews will take longer to arrive in support affecting
our ability to do our jobs at emergency incidents. Fire crews
could be left in the impossible position of standing back and
doing nothing until the necessary resources arrive and risking
the public, or ignoring basic safety procedures and risking
themselves. That is a disgraceful position to put rescue crews
in.
“At a meeting of fire authority councillors
on 26 July they had an opportunity to re-think these cuts. They
failed to take that opportunity.
“No one wants strike action but the fire authority is
leaving us with no alternative.”
Select Committee – IRMPs, New Dimension,
performance measurement & management
The House of Commons Select Committee, in addition to looking
at the regional control rooms proposals (see last week’s
e-bulletin), also investigated other fire service issues. Below
are some key points:
PREVENTION AND RISK ASSESSMENT
Integrated Risk Management Plans
Para 62/page 33
Whilst the CPA process conducted by the Audit Commission will
necessarily involve consideration of an FRA’s IRMP (as
part of examining its management and resource allocation), no
nationwide review of the impact of IRMPs has occurred, or is
planned. We recommend that the impact
and adequacy of Integrated Risk Management Plans is assessed
on a nationwide basis.
Para 63/page 33
We recommend that the Government provide guidance
to the FRS on priorities between local and regional planning
and stipulates clearly how IRMPs should reflect those priorities.
The Fire Safety Order 2006
Para 66/page 35
The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2006 will come into
force in October 2006. The Order will provide a single fire
safety regime applying to all workplaces and nondomestic premises.
Fire certificates (previously issued by the FRS) will be replaced
by a system of responsibilities on a ‘responsible person’,
which will include a duty to carry out a risk assessment.
However, the Fire Protection Association warned that:
“this shift of focus [toward risk-assessment]
should not be undertaken at the expense of the traditional fire
prevention work that has been so successful in ensuring
that the UK workplace has become one of the most fire-safe environments
in the world in recent years”.
The South East RMB told us: “whilst we welcome the introduction
of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order, and support the
drawing together of the myriad of legislation that relates to
fire safety in places of work and public buildings,
we are concerned that placing responsibility for such matters
entirely on the premises occupier or owner, may see a reduction
in the high standards now found in places of work and public
buildings, with regard to fire safety. We believe that the professional
expertise of the Fire and Rescue Service in supporting the business
community through an appropriate mixture of education, encouragement
and enforcement, should be retained, and that it would
be beneficial to carefully review the introduction of the Order
to ensure its implementation meets its stated aims and objectives”.
Para 67/page 36
We welcome the postponement of the commencement of the Regulatory
Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2006 as a sensible precaution to
allow thorough preparation. We recommend that
the Government monitor the implementation of the Order, and
assess its impact on a regular basis.
Sprinklers in schools
Para 69/page 37
Many of our witnesses, however, felt that there should be a
requirement for new and refurbished schools to be fitted with
sprinklers rather than leaving it as a matter of local discretion.
We strongly recommend that the DfES require
sprinkler systems in all new and renovated schools.
The impact of the shift towards prevention
Para 71/page 37
The FBU was concerned however that emphasis on prevention might
shift attention and resources away from the FRS’s primary
role of fighting, and rescuing people from, fires:
“frontline fire service, frontline intervention, should
not be sidelined by community fire safety or any other preventative
measures. They should be worked alongside each other…figures
show, in terms of the people rescued, that intervention is still
one of the heights of the fire service’s uses”.
para 71/page 38
There is no evidence to suggest that the rescue role of the
FRS function has been compromised by increased emphasis on prevention
and risk assessment. If successful, prevention may lead to further
efficiency savings as fewer fires would need to be attended.
We recommend that the Government monitor the
impact of diverting resources to fire prevention on FRS activity
in other areas.
CIVIL RESILIENCE
Background: new duties for the FRS
Para 74/page 40
The FBU was concerned that FRAs’ ability
to initiate staff cuts as part of the IRMP process created a
“central fault line in current national resilience planning”,
as personnel levels impacted on the FRS’s overall capacity
to respond to a series of protracted major incidents. If
IRMPs were well-integrated with wider resilience planning, issues
such as overall FRS staffing levels would be more likely to
be adequately considered. We recommend that
the Government give urgent consideration as to how the Integrated
Risk Management Plans may be better linked to planning for major
catastrophic incidents.
Equipment
Para 77/page 42
…The FBU raised a key question: “if London needs
a total of 16 Incident Response Units (plus the associated support
crews of 40 firefighters per Unit) how many may the rest of
the UK now need?”. We recommend that
the Government conduct a review of civil resilience equipment
requirements across England in light of the experience of the
July 2005 attacks on London.
Integrated Risk Management Plans
Para 78/page 42
However, the FBU have pointed out that Hertfordshire,
where Buncefield lies, has an IRMP which prescribes staff cuts
in the county with the result that “two of the retained
stations who attended in the first 20 minutes of that incident
are going to be closed and disappear”. This underlines
the importance of local IRMPs being linked to major incident
planning.
Mutual aid agreements
Para 80/page 43
Mutual aid agreements are likely to be important to the success
of regional and national cooperation in the event of a major
incident, in particular allowing shared use of specialist equipment.
We recommend that the Government encourage greater use of mutual
aid agreements by FRAs to further enhance resilience.
Performance measurement and management
We welcome the plans for the independent operational assessment
of fire authorities to be carried out next summer. The proposed
assessment should be conducted by the Audit Commission and combined
with the current CPA to minimise the audit burden on FRAs. (Paragraph
109)
We recommend that the Government ensure the CPA inspection process
covers all the activities of the Fire and Rescue Authorities.
(Paragraph 111)
We recommend that the Government introduce performance indicators
on community fire safety. (Paragraph 113)
See the next e-bulletin for more on the Select Committee report
– including retained duty system & diversity in the
fire service.
Radlett & Bovington target
response times missed during time engines removed
Hertfordshire fire service failed to hit its own 999 response
times to incidents at Radlett and Bovingdon in the four weeks
that fire engines were removed during the recent dispute. And
support for Borehamwood crews, normally provided by Radlett,
took up to 46 minutes to arrive from London.
These disastrous facts fly in the face of assurances by politicians
that the Radlett and Bovingdon areas would be easily covered
by other fire stations after they are permanently closed next
week on 31st July.
With only 6 days to go, local campaign groups and the FBU are
calling for the Council to delay the closure of the stations
to give Councillors time to review what they had previously
been assured by Fire Chiefs. The council has agreed the budget
for the stations up to 31st March 2007.
Tony Smith, FBU Herts vice-chair said: “Local fire crews
analysed the response times, which was only possible because
the county council removed the fire engines from Radlett and
Bovingdon during the dispute.
“Of the 25 calls to incidents at Radlett and Bovingdon
only 3 were within the promised time for first arrival and one
took over 20 minutes. Of the 16 incidents at Bovingdon none
of them hit the promised response times. One took 20 minutes
36 seconds, another 18 minutes 57 seconds, two others over 14
minutes and another just over 13 minutes. Of the nine incidents
in Radlett only three hit the promised response times.
Response time up to 46 minutes
“Of the ten incidents in Borehamwood, which would have
normally been supported by Radlett, the worst response time
was 46 minutes from London. Three others took over 20 minutes
and another 17 minutes and 53 seconds for a fire engine to arrive
from London.
“The county council’s removal of the fire engines
gave us a unique opportunity to see what would happen to response
times if station closures went ahead and the results are alarming.
Apart from the communities directly hit in Radlett and Bovingdon,
this has a knock on effect across the County.
“Borehamwood would be directly affected by Radlett’s
closure as would the areas where Bovingdon would normally be
in support. If councillors press ahead with these closures they
will be playing Russian roulette with firefighter and public
safety. You can’t run a 999 service on the basis that
you will stay lucky because somewhere, for someone, that luck
will run out.
Facts speak for themselves
“Councillors are now in a position to make an informed
judgment, not one based on claims and theoretical - the facts
speak for themselves. The savings they will make are tiny in
comparison to a death, injury or greater fire damage caused
by delays in getting to incidents and they should think again.”
Local campaigners and the FBU will be coming together at a public
demonstration against the station closures on Monday 31st July
2006 ending in a rally at St. Mary’s Place, Watford at
midday.
A press conference will be held at the Red Lion Hotel,
78 – 80 Watling Street, Radlett WD7 7NP at 9am on Monday
31st July.
Radlett & Bovingdon firefighters, together with representatives
from the two action groups will be on hand to make statements
and answer questions on the closures of the two fire stations.
TUC safety reps survey
The deadline for the sixth TUC survey of Safety Reps is rapidly
approaching. FBU safety reps are reminded to complete the questionnaire,
answering as many questions as possible, by next Tuesday 1 August
2006.
The Union has sent safety reps a link to the online survey.
Here it is again:
www.tuc.org.uk/h_and_s/tuc-11930-f0.cfm/formbuilder/51/p/1
Separately, the TUC has asked affiliates to get in touch with
details of any successes in improving health and safety standards.
Please send them to National Officer John McGhee, who is collating
them on behalf of the FBU. For information on the Union’s
health and safety work visit: www.fbu.org.uk/workplace/healthsafety/
Fire kit to Iraq - FBU solidarity
mission
The FBU’s plans to deliver 2 fire appliances to Iraq later
this year are progressing. Those appliances have now been secured
from Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service. They have also
donated a full set of ladders on each and a full set of Clan
Lucas Hydraulic cutting/spreading equipment.
The hope is to take out as much kit as possible. Members/officials
approach your individual brigades for donations of unused kit.
We need anything that you would expect to find on your appliance,
including both suction and delivery hose, collecting heads and
strainers to allow the pumps to work.
Because of time constraints, any equipment would need to be
delivered by the end of August.
It should be sent to:
Adrian Clarke
Stanground Fire Station
Belle Vue
Stanground
Peterborough
Cambridgeshire
For more information on the Union’s international
work visit: www.fbu.org.uk/campaigns/international/
Joint meeting between Firefighter
unions from United Kingdom, United States, Canada, New Zealand,
and Australia.
Following on from the successful meeting of officials of unions
representing firefighters from across Europe hosted by the FBU
held in the UK in June, the FBU has been represented this week
at a meeting in Hawaii, between the four trade unions representing
firefighters in the USA, New Zealand, Australia, Canada and
the UK itself.
The meeting was highly successful in discovering the similarity
of the experiences of the four unions concerning inadequate
conditions of service and levels of pay received by their members.
Senior officials of the four unions explored the approaches
and tactics used by their sister unions to meet the challenges
of defending and improving conditions, pay, levels of fire cover,
response times and weight of attack available at incidents in
their respective countries.
The IAFF from the USA and Canada was represented by general
president Harold Schaitberger, chief of staff Michael J. Crouse,
and vice presidents Louie Wright, Jim Ferguson, Mike Mullane,
Thomas Miller and Lorne West. The Australian representatives
comprised Mark Walker from the Queensland branch of the United
Firefighters Union, Leigh Hubbard National Executive Officer,
national president Ron Hanna, General Secretary Peter Marshall,
and branch officials Tony Scully and Tony Trimble. The New-Zealand
Professional Firefighters Union was represented by national
committee member Steve Warner, National Secretary Derek Best,
and President Michael McEnaney. The FBU was represented by AGS
Andy Dark.
The items under discussion were extensive and were an indication
of the level of activity of the trade unions as the professional
voice in the fire services in their respective countries. The
agenda included organizational structures, rules, salaries,
conditions of service, collective bargaining arrangements, pensions,
political activity, trade union involvement in the campaigns
for adequate fire cover and weight of attack, fire safety and
building standards. The meeting also compared internal procedures
within the trade unions, membership services and a number of
other key issues.
The representatives of the four unions present agreed to create
an international network of communication in order to better
to achieve our common goals and objectives and to ally ourselves
to this end.
Important initiative
This important initiative to cooperate with each other and share
information stands in contrast to the ever increasing international
and global networking and coordination between employers and
principal offices whose aim is to find ways to reduce five cover
and attack the pay and conditions of fire service staff rather
than defend our vital industry.
A joint statement emerged from the meeting which recognised
the different structures, constitutions and policies of the
four unions and noted the commitment of the unions to work closely
together, and with other firefighter unions, in the future.
A full report of the meeting will be made to the Executive Council
and will be made available to the wider membership.
Trident: CND welcomes commitment
for vote, demands real debate
CND has welcomed the government’s commitment to a vote
on Trident - as announced by the Leader of the Commons Jack
Straw on Friday - following months of pressure from campaigners
and MPs.
However, it warned that a vote in Parliament must be preceded
by a full public and Parliamentary debate and the publication
of a Green Paper outlining all the options.
The “statement in advance of any debate,” which
Mr Straw referred to, must not merely outline the government’s
preferences, said CND. It must facilitate an open and democratic
debate rather than stifle any opinions or rule out any options
such as non-replacement.
For more information visit: www.cnduk.org
The commitment to a parliamentary vote came after thousands
– FBU members and officials included – lobbied their
MPs against billions of pounds of public money being spent on
this weapon of mass destruction.
Lebanon/Palestine
Visit www.palestinecampaign.org to do something about the Palestinian/
Lebanon crisis or click below: www.palestinecampaign.org/campaigns.asp?d=y&id=145
Get the e-bulletin by email. Visit www.fbu.org.uk, type in you
email address on the homepage and “Sign Up”. It
takes less than 2 minutes.
+++++++++++stop
press+++++++++++++
Extreme Provocation
As this e-bulletin was in the process of being sent the situation
in Merseyside has worsened due to the actions of the CFO.
Whilst the watch at Netherton were engaged in a discussion around
the mess table by one senior officer another crept into the
station and drove off in one of the appliances! One earmarked
for being cut. At the same time the appliance was being driven
away by a group commander the CFO was elsewhere ‘addressing’
recruits 4 weeks into their career in the fire service and ‘discussing’
the dispute.
The CFO stated today that he expected talks to continue and
was positive the dispute could be resolved. One thing is positive.
Provoking our members in this manner is hardly the actions of
someone who is sincere in their talk of a negotiated settlement.
Get the e-bulletin and other FBU campaign
news by email. Visit www.fbu.org.uk,
type in you email address in the bottom left hand side of the
homepage and “Sign Up”. It takes less than 2 minutes.
|
