Firemen: We don’t trust our leaders
Union members pass vote of no confidence in bosses
FIRE Brigades Union members have passed a unanimous vote of no confidence in the leaders of the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service.
The union said the vote was held at an emergency meeting of their Scottish regional committee after members repeatedly raised concerns over the availability of fire engines and a continuing reliance on overtime to crew appliances.
The FBU insisted SFRS chief officer Alasdair Hay and his senior leadership team have had many opportunities to resolve these issues but made no satisfactory improvements.
The union said they were also concerned that a public consultation on service transformation had started before the SFRS had “successfully integrated all legacy fire services practices and processes” and “standardised existing uniformed terms and conditions”.
Kirsty Darwent, chairwoman of the SFRS board, said: “We are perplexed. This comes less than one week into a public consultation on proposals which could see the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service transform to save more lives.
“The Fire Brigades Union are preventing 7500 of Scotland’s firefighters, many of whom are not FBU members, being given a real chance to do so much more for our communities – and be paid 20 per cent more to do so.
“We have always been committed to dialogue. Indeed, since June last year we have met with the FBU on 20 occasions to discuss harmonisation of existing terms and conditions as well as service transformation.”