Dear Brother/Sister
The creation of the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service has inevitably created a number of challenges for the Fire Brigades Union. For some time discussions have been underway between Scottish Regional officials of the union and Head Office (on behalf of the Executive Council) about how the structures of the union will need to change to take account of the creation of the single service.
As a result of these discussions a process has been agreed, which will now begin to be implemented. The development of the new structures will be kept under review by the Executive Council. The new structures of the union in Scotland will include:
Branch Level
Branches will remain as workplace branches in accordance with the union rules.
District Level
The creation of seven new District Committees; three in the West Area; two in the North Area; and two in the East Area.
The new District Committees shall include representatives of all Branches within the geographical area identified.
The District Committee boundaries shall, as far as possible, reflect and take account of the boundaries of the areas covered by Local Senior Officers. These take account of Local Authority boundaries and allow members to clearly identify where a particular Branch should sit within the new structure.
The District Committee boundaries should, as far as possible, ensure a balance of numbers of members between Districts. This is to ensure maximum democracy within the new structure.
The members within each District shall elect (by ballot) a District Secretary and Chair.
The District Secretary and Chair (14 in total) shall attend as delegates to the Scottish Regional Committee, with full voting rights.
The boundaries of the Districts are currently under consideration by the Scottish Regional Committee.
Regional Committee
The voting members of the Scottish Regional Committee will be:
- Regional Officials ( x4)
- District delegates (x14)
- Officers' representative (x1)
- RDS members representative (x1)
- Control members representative (x1)
In addition there will be various other attendees in an advisory role.
Area Level
Within each Area (North, East, West) FBU officials from the Districts shall meet and appoint one of themselves to provide a liaison for management at that level (provisionally called a Joint Secretary).
The Joint Secretary shall have the role of:
- Raising business with management at Area level as appropriate.
- Providing a contact point for management at area level.
- Reporting any such business to the other District officials within the Area.
- Reporting any such business to the Regional Secretary as appropriate.
- Ensuring any matter of an All Scotland nature is referred to the Regional Secretary as appropriate.
The Joint Secretary shall not have any policy or representational role within the FBU except as set out above. They shall not be, for example, an €œArea Official€ of the union. Their union role will remain as District Secretary or Chair and their status shall be equal to any other District Secretary of Chair.
Brigade Organisers
There shall be three Brigade Organisers for Scotland whose role shall be recruiting and organising members in accordance with the Rule Book.
These shall be appointed by the Scottish Regional Committee once the new structure is fully in place.
Other areas for consideration
The Regional Committee and the Executive Council will also need to consider other areas of organisation such as our equality structures, Health and Safety etc. these issues will be considered as the new structures are developed.
Challenges facing FBU members in Scotland
The shift to a single service, alongside the cuts agenda we face, poses many difficult challenges for our service and our profession. The only real protection we will have in these circumstances is to be well organised in our Branches and to ensure the new structure of the union works well and democratically to defend jobs and conditions and to oppose the cuts. All FBU members in Scotland need to play a part to ensure this happens.
The Scottish Government claimed that the single service would be a way of preventing cuts and protecting jobs and services. The FBU made clear throughout discussions that our union will monitor developments closely and will judge this huge change according to whether jobs and the service are protected in reality. Our responsibility is to our members and to the communities we protect.
The evidence so far is worrying. One of the first acts of the new SFRS Board has been to attack our Emergency Fire Controls and decide to shut five. This will lead to a loss of jobs and to a poorer service. It is alarming that at such an early stage the new SFRS Board chose to ignore the evidence and professional arguments presented on behalf of our Emergency Fire Control members by the FBU. At the same time the cuts imposed by the Scottish Government and implemented by the SFRS Board are likely to lead to further attacks on jobs, on conditions of service, on crewing levels and all the other gains we have made over the years. Cuts in Scotland ' just as elsewhere in the UK ' will worsen conditions for our members, will make the service we deliver worse for the public and will threaten the safety of firefighters and the public.
Please work with your colleagues and with Officials to ensure the FBU in Scotland is well organised to face these and the other challenges we face.
Best wishes.
Yours fraternally
Matt Wrack
General secretary
2014HOC0099MW
