The Chair of the West Midlands Fire and Rescue Authority has appealed to the government to return to negotiations with the FBU over pensions.
John Edwards, who has been a councillor since 2004, has written to Fire Minister Brandon Lewis asking for his department to heed it’s own evidence and put public safety first.
In the statement, Edwards said: “I’m pleased that everyone in the West Midlands Fire and Rescue Authority area stayed safe through the four-hour strike period this afternoon.
“A firefighters strike is something that no-one ever really wants and it’s always the very last resort at the end of a long period of discussion and negotiation. In this case that has gone on for the last two years.
“I understand absolutely the anger and unrest that exists amongst staff over the ill thought out changes to the firefighters’ pension scheme, particularly the movement of the age of retirement from 55 to 60 for firefighters in the 1992 pension scheme. After the outcome of the strike ballot and this afternoon’s strike action the Government should understand those concerns, too.
“I wrote to the Fire Minister Brandon Lewis MP back in April and asked him to settle the dispute around the normal pension age in line with the evidence presented by the FBU and by his own Williams review which he established and for which he selected the Chair.
“Dr Williams said in his report to the Minister that if the retirement age was raised to 60 “there will be a significant number of firefighters who expected to retire at age 55 and who will have difficulty maintaining fitness beyond this age”. Dr Williams also found that “significant numbers will be in a position where they can no longer cope, often through loss of fitness, but the only option is to leave or have their contract terminated on capability grounds without early payment of pension”.
“I don’t think this is an acceptable way to treat firefighters who have committed decades to public service in a difficult and dangerous profession.
“I will now be writing again to the Fire Minister to remind him that this dispute is not of our making and that it is beyond our ability to control or settle it. I will urge him in the interests of public safety to return to formal negotiations with the Fire Brigades Union to seek a settlement to the dispute.”
