South Yorkshire fire crews will ballot for industrial action ‘short of strike’ at this time, in a dispute over frontline cuts and management imposed changes to terms and conditions. The Fire Brigades Union has given the authority seven days’ notice to reverse or remove a range of cuts to frontline crewing.
The cuts include closing four fire stations, losing full size fire engines crewed by four firefighters and replacing them with vans crewed by two firefighters, introducing a new duty system that will see firefighters being on duty at the fire station for 96 continuous hours, reducing the number of emergency fire control operatives as well as introducing new policies without agreement.
FBU brigade secretary John Gilliver said: “Frontline cuts have got to stop and we need to start filling vacancies. Fire crews have shown they can agree to be flexible to protect the front line but these cuts are going too far and we have serious concerns regarding the safety of the public and firefighters in South Yorkshire. As well as front line cuts, senior managers have been imposing changes to our members terms and conditions without agreement and now firefighters in South Yorkshire have said enough is enough. We thought we’d moved away from this type of behaviour by senior managers following the last dispute being resolved and a change of management at the very top but it appears we are heading back down the same route”
