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Old 8th Aug 2004, 19:33
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Runway 31
 
Join Date: Sep 2003
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Xpinger,

Thank you for your contribution. I have already stated that the forces on active duty do not get public holidays. I think we should also acknowledge that no other profession is any where near as difficult as being in the armed forces and I have tried to be as fair as I could in my postings. If anyone thinks that I am being evasive in any of my answers, I am trying to be as open and honest as possible.

Just for the record I will not be supporting the calls for a strike, on this occasion and I did not on the last occasion either.

What is quite problamatic however is the small detail that the employers have stated that they will not meet with us unless there is a yes vote in the ballot. Where does that leave the firefighters. There is a groundswell of opinion within the service to get our leadership to offer on a public forum to work normally on a public holiday. This will cause the employers a great deal of difficulty as the are requiring any member of the service rostered to work on a public holiday to treat it the same as any other day. To save money however the service leaves only minimum levels of staff on duty. To ensure that all members work normally will require those normally given the day off, ie training staff, support staff, community safety personnel etc, to report for duty at double time rates. It is estimated that this will add an extra £30 million to the wage bill. Who thought this one through. Still as long as political dogma wins why worry.

Also the public holiday shambles was subject to negotiations and the form of wording was agreed by both sides on Tuesday 29 July in the TUC brokered negotiations.

The section in question with the wording proposed by the employers was as follows:

“Where the shift duty system at Section 4 Part A paragraph 7 continues to operate employees on the system should be allowed to take rest periods every night between midnight and 0700 and between 0700 and midnight on public holidays, other than on those occasions where they are required to respond to emergency calls, perform work arising from emergency calls or perform other essential activities that:
1) Arise from the Integrated Risk Management Plan,
2) Are within the employee’s role and responsibilities, and
3) Are appropriate during these hours.
These arrangements shall be the subject of consultation between the fire and rescue authority and recognized trade unions.”

Whether you like the negotiated wording or not this is what was agreed. On the Friday every outstanding item had been agreed and the employers and the FBU were to meet on Monday last to sign the agreement. The employers refused to sign their own proposal. We need answers to why.

What happened has been well reported, why it is not getting the attention it deserves is open to conjecture. As an example, I have provided below the transcript of a feature on the Today programme 0750 6 August:


Presenter: The woman who chairs the employers’ negotiating team has lost her position it seems, having a fall out with her colleagues in the Local Government Association. In a meeting with the Fire Brigades Union earlier this week, Christina Jebb, a Liberal Democrat, backed a proposal to settle the dispute but was outvoted by her own side. She said several councilors were brought into the meeting to oppose the deal.

[Plays clip from yesterday]

Christina Jebb: They don’t want a settlement. I don’t know why they don’t want a settlement but they obviously don’t want to get an agreement. Normally there would only have been 16 people there and there were 10 people there that had not attended the meeting previously and weren’t up to speed with the progress of the negotiations, and nor were they up to speed with the implications of their actions.

Presenter: Not so, according to John Ransford from the Local Government Association speaking shortly before Christina Jebb. He was adamant that the vote had not been rigged.

[Plays clip from yesterday]

JR: This meeting was called at very short notice – in the middle of August – so a lot of people are away on holiday so we had to ensure that those people would regularly have been there but were away for no fault of their own were substituted. Because the body meets so rarely in that form, a lot more people were involved than would normally be involved in an employers’ meeting.

Interviewer: Well I’m joined now by Brian Coleman, Leader of the London Fire Brigade authority. Also in the studio with us is John McGhee, the National Officer of the Fire Brigades Union. Brian Coleman, what is your understanding of this meeting?

BC: Well, John Ransford is talking a load of absolute nonsense because the LGA dismissed most of its representatives on the NJC, including myself in February. They tried a tactic last week of leaving the NJC the employers’ body inquorate. When that didn’t work, over the weekend they phoned any councillor who was available with a pulse to come in on Monday morning and vote down this deal. In the last 6 months the LGA has dismissed two chairmen of the NJC, half the membership and the entire LGA Fire Executive. The LGA is supposed to speak up for local government, instead they are just doing the Government’s bidding in this dispute.

Interviewer: Why, I mean what is going on?

BC: Well, two reasons, one the leadership of the LGA sees the quest for a knighthood, CBE’s and large allowances and secondly they are in hock with the Government’s agenda. Well that’s fine – I actually support the Government’s agenda, but let’s be open and honest.

Interviewer: Hold on, when you say the Government’s agenda, what are you suggesting that is?

BC: The Government and local politicians of all parties have a clear objective to defeat the FBU once and for all – that is said in semi-public meetings and certainly in endless private meetings over the last 18 months. I’ve heard it said by ministers – we all know that is the case – every time we get near – every time the moderate employers, if you like get near an agreement, whether it’s at the Connaught Rooms or last Monday, the guns are wheeled in to scupper any sort of deal.

Interviewer: John McGhee - What is your interpretation of what happened this week?

JM: Well, I think what happened this week was an outright disgrace. We had reached the final point of this dispute under the auspices of the General Secretary of the TUC and once again it was scuppered. And as Brian Coleman has said quite openly here, what seems to be going on behind the scenes and he is certainly privy to information that we wouldn’t be. Now, we have fought to defend the Fire Service for 20 years – over the Tory years and since this government came into power and we will continue to do that.

Presenter: We still have this difficulty about bank holiday working.

JM: Well this is not just bank holiday working. We agreed to a form of wording which the employers proposed to us themselves and again under the auspices of the General Secretary of the TUC, that provisional agreement was reached and we turned up on Monday expecting them to sign – we have already compromised on many many issues outside of the June 2003 agreement and it’s been a very difficult time for everybody inside of the Fire Service and it’s by far time that this was now over and that the 3.5% that’s owed to our members since November and the 4.2% since July is paid and let’s get on with providing the best service.

Interviewer: Well, I was going to say, the public will be worried whether or not it’s going to have a fire service this summer, isn’t it? It is extraordinary that this deal having been agreed still can’t be actually worked through and implemented.

JM: Yes I agree absolutely extraordinary – it has been worked through and it has been agreed and it should now be implemented and implementation of that will mean that the Fire Service will continue because that’s what our members want – I was a firefighter for 17 years and fought to make sure that when people called the Fire Service they got a fire engine there in the time they should and in the Audit Commission’s own words we have been providing one of the best and highest performing public services.

Interviewer: We haven’t got much time - do you think we are heading for a strike?

JM: I hope we’re not. I hope we’re not heading for a strike and I hope that the LGA will see sense and if the government wants to make an intervention they should and positively pay our members.

Last edited by Runway 31; 8th Aug 2004 at 19:44.
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