Fire crews begin strike ballot after rejecting pay deal

FIREFIGHTERS have started a strike ballot after there was no improvement on a five per cent pay offer.

It raises the real prospect of crews walking out over for pay for the first time in 20 years.

A union chief said yesterday that after ‘years of derisory pay offers’ firefighters were having to use foodbanks.

He said the ballot was a ‘last resort’ and urged the government to intervene to resolve the stalemate.

Earlier this month, crews and control staff voted overwhelmingly to snub the offer in what union bosses said displayed a ‘remarkable strength of feeling.’ It was a three per cent increase on an offer made in the summer.

Nationally 79pc voted to reject the 5pc offer, with 78pc of eligible Fire Brigades Union members voting in the ballot. That ballot was a consultative ballot of union members on the 5pc pay offer and not a ballot for strike action. Around 32,500 members took part in the vote.

Last week union bosses said they would formally issue notice of a strike ballot if ‘a substantial pay increase that takes into account the current level of inflation and the cost of living crisis’ was not received by yesterday, after pay discussions had “failed to reach any resolution”.

In a statement yesterday the Fire Brigades Union said: “No such pay offer has been received and notice of ballot has been sent to fire and rescue service employers. A formal dispute is now open. Firefighters and control staff have been offered a 5pc pay increase, which they rejected in a consultative ballot. Annual CPI inflation currently stands at 11.1pc.”

The strike ballot is set to be open from Monday, December 5, to Monday, January 30. If a national strike were to take place, it would be the first since pension action between 2013 and 2015 – which did not include control staff – and the first on pay since 2002-2003 when Army vehicles were deployed on the streets of Greater Manchester and soldiers responded to calls.

Manchester-born Matt Wrack, Fire Brigades Union general secretary, said: “This is an historic ballot for firefighters and control staff. We are rarely driven to these lengths. Nobody wants to be in this position. But after years of derisory pay increases and a pay offer that is well below inflation firefighters’ and control staff’s living standards are in peril.

“We have firefighters using foodbanks – we know that because FBU officials have had to sign off on members going to them. Firefighters and control staff worked throughout the pandemic and firefighters took on extra duties including moving the deceased. They have now been given a below-inflation pay offer. It is utterly disgraceful to call people ‘key workers’ and then treat them like this.”

Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service has declined to comment.