Fire crews threaten industrial action in cuts row

Chief officers at South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue unveiled a programme of changes to the service earlier this year after a series of public consultations.

They claim all the changes are necessary to help the service meet huge budget cuts demanded by the Government, and have warned that further changes will have to be made.

But FBU officials immediately called for each of the cuts to be dropped, and have urged senior officers and members of the service’s governing fire authority to dip into reserves instead.

A series of meetings have been held recently at fire stations across the county and FBU brigade secretary John Gilliver said members were increasingly unhappy at being ignored by management.

Mr Gilliver said at present firefighters were not considering walking out like they did in a bitter dispute in 2010, but added: “Frontline cuts have got to stop and we need to start filling vacancies.

“Fire crews have shown they can agree to be flexible to protect the front line but these cuts are going too far and we have serious concerns regarding the safety of the public and firefighters in South Yorkshire.

“As well as front line cuts, senior managers have been imposing changes to our members’ terms and conditions without agreement and now firefighters in South Yorkshire have said enough is enough.

“We thought we’d moved away from this type of behaviour by senior managers following the last dispute being resolved and a change of management at the very top but it appears we are heading back down the same route.”

Mr Gilliver said the FBU had given the authority seven days’ notice to reverse or remove a range of cuts to frontline crewing or face a range of industrial action from fire crews.

The union’s main concerns centre around the closure of four fire stations and the loss of full size fire engines crewed by four firefighters and replacing them with vans crewed by two firefighters.

Chiefs also want to introduce a new duty system that will see firefighters being on duty at the fire station for 96 continuous hours, as well as reducing the number of emergency fire control operatives

The FBU also accused the brigade of “introducing new policies without agreement”.

A spokesman for South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue said yesterday: “We acknowledge the FBU’s letter.

“This is disappointing, given that the fire authority made its decisions, following a full public consultation, to maximise public safety despite Government cuts to our budget of over £10m.

“It was unfortunate that FBU officials were unable to put forward any alternative proposals to make the necessary savings during the public consultation period.

“We continue to have constructive discussions with our staff over these issues.

“We will keep trying to engage the FBU’s officials as we implement the authority decisions and continue our work to improve public safety across South Yorkshire.”

The action in South Yorkshire is part of a series of campaigns being run by the union across the country, with crews in Essex also being balloted on industrial action with a walk-out threatened.

Cuts branded “dangerous” are also at the centre of a row in Cambridgeshire, where the FBU said its members “stand ready to respond with industrial action if the county’s fire authority agree at their meeting this Thursday to make dangerous cuts to frontline services.”

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