AROUND 100 members of the Fire Brigades Union from across London lobbied talks at ACAS yesterday, where FBU leaders warned the employers they would call a strike ballot, unless a £2,500 a year pay cut for ‘watch managers’ is withdrawn.
Derek Warman, FBU borough rep for Merton and Sutton, told News Line: ‘I’m a firefighter showing solidarity with the watch managers.
‘I support them because basically they are taking a wage cut, they are actually being pushed onto a lower pay scale.
‘In London we agree with modernisation, but it must be done in the right way and not just become another name for cuts.
‘We are overstretched and one of the main things is even trying to keep the level of fire cover we have at the moment.’
Paul Embery, FBU London regional official, said: ‘We are outside ACAS today because negotiations are taking place here about management’s plans to reduce the pay of fire station watch managers by £2,500 a year.
‘This is a result of a national fire service employers’ decision earlier this year to change the terms and conditions of watch managers, under a reorganisation of fire service structure.
‘If we don’t get anything out of these negotiations, we’ll ballot the membership for industrial action.’
Richard Lockwood, chair of the FBU officers central committee, said: ‘The negotiations will go on as long as it takes.
‘We’re here to get an agreement for the protected station officers.
‘Station officers are now called “watch managers’’ and, as a result of this change of status, there are no longer ranks in the fire service, there are “roles’’.’
He added: ‘Station officers and sub-officers have been merged into the “role’’ of watch manager – watch managers “A’’ and watch managers “B’’.
‘This is a cost-saving exercise and watch managers are effectively being asked to take a pay cut of £2,500 a year.
‘They were given a certain period of protection. Other authorities and brigades have continued that protection.
‘But our authority has chosen to enforce the pay cut. It doesn’t have to do this.
‘In the past, for other senior ranks, they have given that pay protection for life, or until promotion, and that’s what we’re asking for.’
Tony Purnell, a watch manager, said: ‘I used to be a station officer, we all used to be station officers, but they’ve changed our status and they call us watch managers now under the new regulations.
‘But what they’ve done is decide to increase our workload and reduce our pay, which will affect our pensions.
‘In the biggest economic downturn seen for 20 years, they’re making it harder for working-class people to sustain their everyday lives.
‘I think there should be a public sector-wide general strike. I think Brown and Darling are beyond their capabilities, they’ve been promoted into positions they can’t handle and they’re destroying the economy.
‘I can’t even afford to live in London.
‘I live 55 miles outside London, the fuel prices are going up and it costs me even more to get to work.
‘Food prices are going up and my wages are going down by £2,400 a year, and it’s time we stood up and said “No, we’re not having it!’’ ’
Other watch managers at the lobby of ACAS questioned why the trade unions were still funding the Labour Party, and said that so much of the fire service’s equipment has been sold off under the Labour government, that even their uniforms are no longer the property of the fire service.
