The Employment Tribunal decision concerning the transitional arrangements for the 2015 Firefighter’s Pension Scheme has been handed down. The Tribunal concluded that these arrangements did not discriminate on the grounds of age, sex or race.
The Fire Brigades Union (FBU) will consider the reasons for the decision with their legal team in the near future, and will then make a decision whether or not to appeal to the Employment Appeal Tribunal.
Commenting on the decision Matt Wrack, FBU general secretary, said: “This is obviously very disappointing. Our lawyers believed that we have a strong case and that remains their view. A differently constituted Tribunal considered a parallel claim regarding the Judicial Pension Scheme, and reached the opposite conclusion a month ago.
“We have always known that this would be a long fight and we anticipated that the case would be appealed by the Government if we had won.
“We regard the transitional arrangements, which force younger firefighters into having to work on to age 60 are totally unrealistic. We will pursue the argument for our members in whatever venue is likely to deliver us the correct result.”
