Responding to news that the chief fire officer for Hereford and Worcester fire service, Mark Yates, has received around £3,000 from his employer to pay for surgery, Steve Gould, secretary for the local Fire Brigades Union, said:
“The fire service can’t operate on the principle of one rule for the chief and another for everyone else.
“He earns £120,000 a year, and yet when we’ve asked for financial assistance to help firefighters overcome injury we’ve always been knocked back.
“If the brigade is serious about changing that policy now this has been exposed, then perhaps some good will come of this, but it’s pretty hard to take at a time when we’re facing £4 million cuts and firefighters have even had their meal allowances cut.”
