Fire strikes likely after plea for more pay is rejected

Firefighters' leaders warned last night that more strikes were likely after employers said there would be no new money to improve a pay offer.

The Fire Brigades Union is planning two 48-hour strikes, on 28 January and 1 February, in protest at the proposed 11 per cent wage increase in the Bain report last year. Employers said yesterday that the offer suggested by Sir George Bain, which would be funded by radical modernisation, was "the only game in town".

Employers' leaders, who meet union representatives next week, are not optimistic. Jim Chrystie, their spokesman, said: "The position is very clear. We will be telling the FBU that we will be offering no more in pay than was in the Bain report. And we will not be going for a modernisation agenda that is any less than Bain."

The Bain review, published in December, was condemned by the FBU as "irrelevant" and "insulting". The union believes modernisation simply means job cuts. Geoff Ellis, a national official at the FBU, said the Bain report was "not the way forward". He said the union would reserve comment until next week, but added: "We are after a sizeable increase and until we get that the dispute is going to continue. We have strikes planned and it looks like they are going to go ahead".

Both sides begin separate talks with the conciliation service Acas on Tuesday.

Firefighters held a two-day national strike, the first since 1977, last November, then staged an eight- day walkout. Plans for action in December were suspended to allow extra talks.

Sir George has suggested an 11 per cent increase over two years; changes to shift patterns; charges for false alarms; a system for insurance companies to pay for fire brigade attendance at road accidents and extra medical training for firefighters.