Fire staff win battle over pay deal row

Hundreds of workers in the country’s biggest fire authority are in line for a payout after unions won a four-year campaign over a long-term wage deal.

By The Newsroom

Published 12th Apr 2013, 01:01 BST

Unison and the GMB announced that the Court of Appeal had found in their favour over a 2.5 per cent pay rise for staff at the London Fire Authority, including clerical, administrative and call centre workers.

The unions accused the authority of refusing to honour the third year of a pay deal that would have given staff the 2.5 per cent increase in April 2009. The decision will be worth hundreds of thousands of pounds and will affect past and future pay increases, said the unions.

Officials said some low paid workers earning just over £13,600 a year missed out on an agreed pay increase.

A spokesman for the London Fire Brigade said: “The disagreement stemmed from the fire authority’s interpretation of the pay formula for the year 2009, which differed to that of the unions. There was no deliberate attempt to deny people any part of their wages.”