It has been revealed that senior managers at Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service have pocketed thousands of pounds in bonuses and pay rises just as they consider axing 48 firefighter posts throughout the county.
Cheshire chief fire officer, Paul Hancock, was awarded a 2% pay rise worth more than £3,000 to bring his total annual salary to £155,890. Deputy chief fire officer Mark Chasin also saw his salary rise by over £2,500 to £133,118.
The two also received ‘one-off’ bonus payments equivalent to 3% of their salary, taking home £4,676 and £3,993 respectively.
The Fire Brigades Union (FBU) has slammed the deal and claim that the service has misled the public as the ‘one-off’ payments have actually been paid annually to senior managers since 2013.
Andrew Fox-Hewitt, secretary of the FBU in Cheshire, said: “This is a slap in the face of firefighters throughout Cheshire. At a time when managers want to cut 48 full-time firefighters posts – on top of the 134 they’ve already axed over the past five years – it is despicable that they have taken part in this inappropriate deal. Firefighters have been subject to the government’s 1% public sector pay cap. I don’t see why the rules should be any different for senior managers. Our members are outraged by this.
“The workload faced by our members has increased significantly as resources have been cut back. We have undertaken a record number of home fire safety checks, have attended management ‘insight days’ in our own time, collaborated with the health service and now we are even responding to people suffering from cardiac arrests. If senior managers receive a bonus for their work, why don’t firefighters?”
