Firefighters Take Industrial Action (From Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard)

Firefighters Take Industrial Action

GLOUCESTERSHIRE firefighters are only responding to 999 calls due to a new dispute over pay and conditions.

The Fire Brigades Union says the latest instalment of an agreed 15.2 percent pay increase has not been fully paid and there are other concerns over private insurance cover.

Crews in Salford, who refused to man a new incident response unit (IRU) on Tuesday, as part of the row over insurance, were suspended without pay.

IRUs, which are new to the fire service, can be used for mass decontamination purposes in the event of a chemical incident or terrorist attack.

And FBU members in Gloucestershire have decided to take unofficial action in support of their colleagues and to get the message across.

The FBU's South West regional official John Drake said: "It's very much up to the employers to resolve this - so far they've done nothing about it.

"We have an IRU in Cirencester and the firefighters don't want to be in a position where they might get killed in a terrorist incident and leave their families without financial cover."

FBU members staged a series of strikes in 2002/3 when the Government refused to accept their calls for a 30 percent pay increase.

A 15.2 percent staged deal was eventually agreed but firefighters have only received half of the seven percent instalment they were due to receive in November last year.

The FBU says that, despite promises, the Government has also failed to look into providing personal insurance for firefighters, to cover everything from mortgages to critical illness.