Firefighters held a rally outside a meeting of Gloucestershire county council this Wednesday 18 June, calling for chief fire office Mark Preece to scrap “unworkable” changes to shift patterns.
The Fire Brigades Union has warned that changing day shifts from 8am to 7pm instead of 9am to 6pm for wholetime (full time) firefighters risks forcing many firefighters out of the service.
The council’s fire and rescue scrutiny committee has recommended that the plans are abandoned, raising issues around the impact on firefighters’ morale, a lack of childcare provision, the detrimental effect on firefighters’ family lives, the significant impact on women in the workforce, and the toll the changes would take on firefighters’ physical and mental health.
Kate Yhnell, Fire Brigades Union brigade chair for Gloucestershire said:
Chief fire officer Mark Preece is taking a wrecking ball approach to leading Gloucestershire’s fire and rescue service. Firefighters and the county council have made it clear that his plan to change shift patterns are unworkable and damaging.
It is deeply worrying that he is able to ignore all the evidence and continue to threaten to force through these attacks on firefighters’ working conditions.
Forcing firefighters to work exhausting shifts will only damage the service they can provide. The Fire Brigades Union has repeatedly offered to work in collaboration to increase fire safety visits instead, but senior management has refused.
Gloucestershire’s firefighters are committed to a high standard of service. We will not allow the chief to risk firefighter’s wellbeing and public safety with this vanity project.”
