Deal ends two-year fire dispute

FIREFIGHTERS in South Yorkshire have voted to accept a compromise deal with service bosses, bringing a long running and bitter industrial dispute to an end.

For almost two years Fire Brigades’ Union (FBU) members have been opposing plans to change the present 15-hour night shifts and nine-hour day shifts to two equal shifts of 12 hours each.

Last summer firefighters began an overtime ban and, in October and November, this escalated to a series of full-blown strikes.

However, industrial action was called off to make way for discussions and, after lengthy talks with South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue (SYFR) and arbitrator the National Joint Council Joint Secretaries, members have now voted to accept a compromise of 13-hour night shifts and 11-hour day shifts.

A spokesman for the FBU said: “SYFR recognised that there was overwhelming opposition to their proposed 12-hour shift system and now South Yorkshire FBU members have accepted in a ballot that that this compromise position reached is the best opportunity to resolve this long-running dispute.”

Changes to working hours were first proposed by SYFR as it said cutting the length of the night shift and increasing that of the day shift would enable firefighters to carry out more community work, such as fitting smoke alarms, and also result in 4.4m of efficiency savings.

However, the FBU said the changes would heavily impact on family life and wreak havoc with childcare arrangements. Union officials also said they viewed plans by the service to “dismiss” firefighters and “re-engage” them on new contracts, with different shift times, as a threat to sack members.

Chief fire officer Mark Smitherman said yesterday that he was “pleased the dispute is now over”. He added: “These changes have only ever been about improving the safety of our firefighters and the public, and now we can finally get on with the vital task of making those safety improvements.

“This agreement enables us to deliver all the additional firefighter training we need, with 50 per cent more training time available. It also provides most of the additional time we hoped for to carry out community engagement work to improve the safety of the South Yorkshire public.”

During the strikes in the autumn of last year more than 190 non-union members, volunteers and managers worked, enabling the service to man up to 15 fire engines and 10 smaller vehicles.

Industrial action was called off on Bonfire Night when the FBU agreed to enter into talks with the service.

Talks broke down in January and a further eight-day strike was announced by the FBU, although this was called off at the eleventh hour when it was agreed that negotiations should resume.

Mr Smitherman added: “It is unfortunate it has taken almost two years to achieve these improvements, and relations between managers and the workforce have clearly been affected in that time.

“Over the coming weeks and months we need to come together to face the common challenge of the significant funding cuts we expect after the General Election.”

He said a consultation to try to agree a “new industrial relations protocol with the FBU” would be beginning in May, and said: “I would urge all our staff to embrace that consultation to help us avoid any repetition of this dispute in the tough years to come.”