Firefighters to vote on strike action after rejecting pay deal

Ballots to start on 5 December

(PA)

Firefighters are to vote on strike action after rejecting a 5 per cent pay rise in an ongoing row over wages and conditions.

The Fire Brigades Union (FBU) confirmed on Wednesday that it plans to ballot its members after the offer of improved terms was turned down.

Matt Wrack, the FBU general secretary, said the union’s members “have spoken”.

In a statement, the FBU said that, in a consultative vote, 79 per cent of its members voted to reject the 5 per cent pay offer.

Some 78 per cent of eligible members took part in the ballot.

A ballot on strike action will open on Monday 5 December and close on Monday 23 January, the FBU said.

Mr Wrack said: “This result of the consultative ballot, on a two week turnaround, shows that there is remarkable strength of feeling amongst firefighters and control staff on this derisory pay offer.

“The ball is in the employers’ and government’s court. There is still an opportunity to resolve this dispute and we will be writing to Fire Ministers and government departments across the UK requesting urgent meetings.”

He added: “We have firefighters using foodbanks. Our members worked through the pandemic to help protect their communities, taking on extra duties to do so.

“A further real-terms pay cuts is an absolutely disgusting way to thank them. Whilst strike action is always a last resort, our members simply can’t go on like this.”

If firefighters vote to strike it would be the first national industrial action over pay since 2003.

It comes after nurses voted for a mass walkout last week in a row over pay. The nursing union’s boss said members had been “pushed” to the position where striking was their only option, adding that nurses can no longer be “ignored” by ministers.

Industrial action is expected to be held before the end of the year at some of the UK’s biggest hospitals, including Guy’s and St Thomas’ opposite Parliament, the Royal Infirmary in Edinburgh, University Hospital Wales and Belfast’s Royal Victoria.

The RCN announced on Wednesday last week that its members in the majority of NHS employers across the UK had backed industrial action.