Essential information

Below you’ll find a brief guide to the FBU, frequently asked questions, plus FBU priorities

Who we are

The FBU represents over 85% of the uniformed staff of the UK fire and service. Our members are frontline public service workers - covering the roles of Firefighter to Area Manager, including emergency fire control staff and firefighters working the retained duty system.

FAQs

I'm interested in joining the FBU - where can I find out more?

A special section details all the benefits you get from joining the FBU, from legal advice/services to employment representation and benefits for accidents and injuries outside of work. Find out more

I've got a problem at work - where can I go for advice?

If you are a FBU member, contact your local FBU rep as soon as possible.

If you don't know who your local FBU rep is then contact the nearest regional office to you.

I’m stressed at home/work – where can I go for help and advice?

Ring our free confidential stress and support hotline: 0800 783 4778

Lines are open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week (Have your membership number ready)

I’m looking for legal advice on a personal matter – what can I do?

Ring our free legal helpline 0808 100 6061

8am-8pm Monday-Friday (Have your membership number ready)

I have suffered an injury. Can the union help?

Yes. You are likely to be eligible for benefits under our Accident & Injury Fund. You are also normally eligible for benefits if there is a bereavement in your family. Find out more

I would like to become an FBU Union Learning Fund Rep/I would like to take advantage of the FBU’s Union Learning Fund to further my education and training.

Go to the section on this website, Lifelong Learning, which gives details of the ULF and a ULF co-ordinator in your local area who will be able to help you.

Why are all your documents in PDF format? Why not upload them as Word files?

We avoid Word as it is not a universal format and many home users are unable to work with Word documents.

Furthermore, a Word document can be easily changed by the end user, while a PDF will remain as we intended it to be. There are also issues with PDFs but we feel the benefits outweigh the advantages. These are:

• Absolute portability - no special fonts etc are needed
  
• Accessibility - there is a special reader for the visually impaired
  
• Security - it's difficult to amend a PDF
  
• Standards - PDFs have become the de facto web standard format. Word has not.
  
• Cost - Acrobat Reader is a free piece of easily-downloadable software. Microsoft Office is expensive and a large file.

To read Acrobat PDF files you need Acrobat Reader software, which is available free of charge from the Adobe website in both PC and Mac format.

How do I download PDF files?

When you go to read a PDF document, you have two options.

If you just click once on the link, the PDF file will open within your web browser (usually Internet Explorer). You can then read it as normal. But note that large files (bigger than 500k) may take a few minutes to open in your window.
However, you may prefer to save the PDF onto your hard drive to read at a later date or forward to a colleague. To do this, click on the link to the PDF file you want to see with your right mouse button (Mac users should hold the button down). This will bring up a small menu - if you select Save Target As (or Save Link As) from this you will be able to save the file to your desktop or hard drive and open it outside the browser.

Sometimes a PDF will open but only a blank page is visible. This may be because the view is zoomed into a blank section of the document. Use the dropdown view menu (bottom left hand corner of the screen) to select a suitable view - 100% or 'Fit Width' are usually best.

Especially useful is the Find Tool (a pair of binoculars) - click on the Find icon to search the document for a word or phrase. Click the next icon to the right to search for further occurences of the word or phrase.

PDF accessibility: To read PDFs with a screen reader please go to the Access Adobe website which provides useful tools and resources. Adobe also has a free online conversion tool for PDFs.

I have a comment about this website and want to email your webmaster.

Please email Webmaster with your query. Please restrict your emails to questions about this website such as navigation, documents, downloads etc. All other queries about FBU, your workplace, your membership details etc should be directed through the channels listed above.

I am a member/official and want to get a news story on the website - who do I contact?

Email Firefighter with a summary of the story and your contact information

What we campaign on

The FBU campaigns and lobbies on key issues affecting our members and the public at large. We're working to protect and improve the fire and rescue service, improve safety in the workplace and end discrimination and harassment at work. We are focused on winning for our members, whether they are firefighters working the wholetime or retained duty system, emergency fire control staff, or managers in the UK fire and rescue service. We also support external campaigns, from those seeking better employment rights for all workers in the UK to efforts to secure proper trade union and human rights in Colombia. Find out more.

Getting your voice heard

The FBU has a clear structure to make sure all members can have their say. The union is divided into 13 regions, each with its own regional committee made up of representatives from every branch in each region plus regional officials.

The governing body of the FBU is the annual conference. The union's policy is decided by delegates elected from branches, regions and the union’s sections. Policies decided at conference are carried out by the Executive Council (EC), elected from the regions and the sections. Find out more

Having an equal say

Our sections are a way to get involved on an equal basis with everyone else in the union. They enable the union to reflect particular experiences and enable members with common interests to come together and work on key issues affecting them.

• Retained members
• Emergency Fire Control Staff
• Officer members
• Women members
• Black & ethnic minority members
• Lesbians and gay members

Find out more

FBU in the TUC and in politics

The FBU plays its part in the Trades Union Congress (TUC) and although only a medium size union, has long punched above its weight. The FBU has a voice too in the Scottish, Welsh and Irish trades union congresses.

To make sure that issues affecting our members are heard in the outside world, the FBU has a political fund. This money - collected from our members - can only be spent on political and social campaigning. FBU members voted in a recent ballot to maintain the political fund.

Following the 2004 annual conference decision to disaffiliate from the Labour Party, the Union is revitalizing its political work to ensure we have the maximum influence on political decisions affecting FBU members.

For more on the unions’ political work, click here.

The FBU, the UK fire and rescue service and the NJC

The FBU is the only recognised trade union negotiating nationally with fire and rescue service employers on behalf of firefighters and emergency fire control staff on the National Joint Council (NJC).

The NJC is a forum for collective bargaining which considers wages, conditions of service and other matters. It comprises 30 members on the employers side, 27 members on the employees’ side (all FBU) while a newly established standing sub Committee comprises nine members from each side. The employees’ secretary is Matt Wrack, General Secretary of the FBU.

The NJC is a negotiating body that can only do things by agreement.

In the course of negotiations there are often informal discussions directed towards identifying where agreements might be found, but any offer and acceptance must take place in the NJC with members on both sides signifying their acceptance.

A resolution is carried if it is approved by a majority of members on each side (hence the imbalance in numbers does not matter). Agreements on conditions of service are then incorporated in the Grey Book.

Where the NJC is unable to reach agreement it is open to either side to pursue the matter to arbitration at ACAS.

The day to day dialogue between the secretaries of each side (known as the joint secretaries) is vital to the smooth running of the machinery. It permits early identification of problems coming forward for negotiation.