Contingency plans revealed in case of firefighters’ strike
THE plan to keep fire and rescue services going in South Wales in case firefighters go on strike over pay has been revealed.
Operation Ategol (Welsh for auxiliary) is South Wales Fire Authority’s plan to make sure services keep running in the event of industrial action by firefighters.
Firefighter pay is decided at a UK level and despite a rise being due on July 1, no agreement has yet been reached, so the Fire Brigades Union has said it is preparing for a trade dispute.
The overall annual cost of Operation Ategol is £350,000, which is used to draw down resources to deal with any strike action. They have used it before during a strike over pensions back in 2013-14 with 50 periods of industrial action over 18 months.
The plan caters for auxiliary firefighters, incident commanders, additional professional firefighters, instructor contracts to provide training and a part-time manager so everyone is ready for deployment.
The auxiliary firefighter team is made up of 80 firefighters. That number was 180 in 2013-14.
Councillor Dan Naughton, of Cardiff, asked if that was enough staff to carry out the duties required.
Director of technical services Richard Prendergast said the 80 firefighters are far more experienced than the 180 they had previously.
He said: “It is a massive challenge but we do have the auxiliary reserve which has been used and has been trained. We are in a much better position than we were last time.”