Firefighters pay

Firefighters’ pay is a fundamental issue for FBU members and of the utmost importance to the union. UK-wide national pay and conditions with collective bargaining through the National Joint Council (NJC) and the Middle Managers Negotiating Body (MMNB) is a vital area of the FBU’s work to campaign for decent remuneration for UK fi refi ghters wherever they work. For the last decade fi refi ghters’ pay has been under extreme pressure. Alongside millions of other workers, real wages and real living standards for FBU members have fallen. This has been the result of the economic downturn following the banking crash of 2007-08 and the central government austerity policies which have been imposed since. This has seen public sector pay increases limited to 1% and, for two years, limited to no pay increase at all. FBU conference in May 2016 debated the pay situation. Conference was clear that the FBU would need to step up our campaign on this issue. The FBU continues to advocate action on the government’s pay policy by the trade union movement as a whole. Together with the PCS, we made this case to the TUC congress in September 2016. The union continues to call for a much wider trade union fi ght over pay and will continue to work with allies in other trade unions to seek to develop this.

FIREFIGHTERS’ PAY IN CONTEXT

As a result of our previous discussions, particularly since our conference in 2013, the executive council’s pay group has met to develop a pay strategy. This has included developing discussions with our employers on pay and conditions. These have been conducted through the National Joint Council, in particular through the NJC agreed work-streams on the broadening role of the fi re and rescue service. The union has also commissioned research by Incomes Data Research, 13273 FBU Rec of Decisions 2017.indd 7 09/06/2017 12:11 8 pay specialists used by the TUC and employers, to look specifi cally at fi refi ghters’ pay.

This research found that;

• Firefi ghters’ basic pay increases have been lower than the median pay settlement for the whole economy since 2006. A comparison with private sector pay settlements shows a similar pattern

• Compared with inflation, fi refi ghters’ basic pay increases have been below infl ation since 2007 on both the consumer price index (CPI) and the retail price index (RPI) measures, with the exception of 2009 when RPI infl ation was negative

• In real terms, i.e. adjusted for RPI infl ation, firefighters’ pay increases were negative throughout most of the period covered by the research (the exceptions were 2004, 2005, 2009 and 2015, when the basic rise was worth 0% in real terms). When developments around wholetime fi refi ghters’ (including Control members) basic salary levels are compared with those for a range of other associate professional occupations, they were found to be broadly comparable with developments in salaries for other roles such as paramedic, nurse, prison officer and civil servant. The situation is complicated due to differing systems of pay between different sectors and occupations. The main impact on real wages and on living standards is a result of the general attack on wages arising from austerity measures. This has left FBU members suffering a long-term squeeze on living standards. For example, if fi refi ghters’ pay had been increased at a rate equal to infl ation since 2010, then a competent wholetime fi refi ghter would be over £5,000 better off if this was done using RPI and almost £3,000 better off if CPI was used. 

GOVERNMENT POLICY AND OUTLOOK

The main infl uence on public sector pay settlements is government policy. The current policy of central government seeks to limit pay increases to an average of 1% until at least 2020. Another driver has been recruitment and retention with various (limited) sections of the public sector workforce being granted particular settlements to take account of recruitment and retention diffi culties. The Bank of England’s infl ation report in February 2017 estimated that infl ation is expected to increase to 2.8% in the fi rst half of 2018, before falling back gradually to 2.4% in 2020. This is likely to exacerbate the squeeze on living standards explained above.

Conference agrees the following;

1. The FBU will make a pay claim through the NJC and MMNB before June 2017 and will continue to develop our position on a long-term pay structure appropriate for today’s fi re and rescue service

2. The union will launch a campaign, lobbying MPs and the employers, to explain how fi refi ghters’ pay has fallen behind in recent years

3. The FBU will consult members via brigade committees and other channels in order to determine how to develop wider campaigning on pay

4. The FBU will continue to work with the other unions and the TUC/STUC/ICTU on a campaign to ‘break the pay limit’.