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bosses told: “stick with pay formula or face action”
THE FBU HAS demanded that the national fire service employers commit themselves to awarding a pay rise in line with a previously agreed formula or face the possibility of national industrial action.
The threat comes as discussions between the two sides reach a critical stage, with the annual pay rise for firefighters due in July.
The 2003 pay and conditions agreement that ended the national dispute made provision for an agreed pay formula—which linked firefighters’ pay to increases awarded to the associate, technical and professional (ATP) group of workers—until 2006.
Whilst the employers did not commit themselves to the principle of a pay formula in 2007, they still offered a rise in line with what the formula would have delivered.
This year, however, the union has met with greater resistance. The employers are seeking to link any increase to further modernisation of the service and are highlighting the government’s demand that public sector pay rises do not exceed 2%.
The FBU’s annual conference, which met in Southport last week, rallied behind a resolution from the executive council, calling for action in the event that an increase in line with the formula was refused. At the same time, the conference resolved to reconsider for future years the viability of the link with the ATP group, which some suggest does not sufficiently deliver for firefighters.
The FBU’s regional secretary for London, Joe MacVeigh, said, “We have had a pay formula, or something like it, in the fire service for 30 years.A formula brings stability and industrial harmony. Without it, the fire service would go the same way as the rest of the public sector: an annual pay bargaining squabble which threatens industrial harmony and brings the service to the brink of industrial action.
After such a turbulent few years in the fire service, that is something we could well do without.
“However, we must be ready for a battle if that is what is required. We have recently seen teachers, civil servants and local government workers take to picket lines. Also making threats of action are ambulance workers, so we are not alone.
“The bottom line is that this is a very wealthy country, and Gordon Brown could well afford to pay public sector workers decent wages if he had the desire. But he is so beholden to big business and the financiers that he tries to but us off with crumbs.”
BlazingPalace
Mind you with the union voting at National Level to cut the pay of Station Officers, Employers do not need to worry, seems the union can do the job for them.
