28 March 2003
The government has moved to strip powers over the fire service from employers and the Fire Brigades Union as tempers frayed following the initial rejection of the latest pay offer.
The Deputy Prime Minister fulfilled his threat of legislation last week when he published his two-clause Fire Services Bill.
Under the Bill, which is expected to make a swift passage through Parliament, Prescott will be able to impose pay and conditions on firefighters while giving 'specific directions to fire authorities on the use and disposal of property and facilities'.
It is a solution neither the FBU nor the employers want and both claim that it undermines them.
The move follows the rejection of the employers' final pay offer of 16% and modernisation by a special FBU conference last week.
The union will hold a further conference on April 15 to make the final decision. The FBU's executive was due to meet again as Public Finance went to press to decide if it would continue to recommend the deal.
Prescott has given the FBU a final ultimatum: accept the employers' deal or he will impose a pay increase, expected to be slightly less than the three-year 16% deal currently on offer.
A spokesman for the union said this would not put its members under pressure. 'It is something we were expecting and it is not likely to happen in the next two weeks,' he told PF. 'It is not easy to put firefighters under pressure. Pressure for us is a burning room.'
PFmar2003
