04 July 2003
Fire authority employers have warned of further industrial strife in the wake of the plans to overhaul firefighters' working practices and service structures.
Charles Nolda, executive director of the Employers' Organisation, told Public Finance that the reforms outlined by John Prescott this week would 'generate local difficulties'.
Although he stopped short of saying the government's modernisation plans, set out in a white paper, would lead to more strikes, he warned that they would raise tensions between employers and firefighters.
'I think it's fair to predict that the impact of the reform package locally will create a lot of situations which will lead to difficult employee relations,' he said.
The deputy prime minister shied away from removing firefighters' right to strike, but Nolda said this was still a live issue: 'More naughtiness may encourage the government to put it back on the agenda.'
The publication of Our fire and rescue service on June 30 comes after a bitter nine-month pay dispute.
Controversially, it proposes a shift to a more 'risk-based' approach, which would see some fire stations relocated and staffing levels adjusted to reflect peaks and troughs in demand. Some of the 58 authorities' control rooms could be merged to make savings: running costs vary from just £18m to £168m.
Prescott played down suggestions that up to one-tenth of the 55,000-strong service would lose their jobs, saying that natural wastage would account for reductions.
'All the talk about closing fire stations and thousands of firefighters being made unemployed is totally untrue,' he said.
Under the plans, the service will be renamed the fire and rescue service and will place greater emphasis on prevention, backed up by £43m over three years to spend on community initiatives.
Employment terms and conditions will also be reformed, with a focus on workforce diversity and the introduction of accelerated staff development schemes.
Three separate pay negotiation bodies will hammer out deals for chief officers, middle managers and rank-and-file staff.
Significantly, the white paper indicates that ministers will now 'set the framework' within which discussions can take place.
Nolda appeared resigned to the autonomy of the national joint council, the forum for pay negotiations between employers and unions, being curtailed. 'The overall effect is of a centralising nature but, after the events of the past nine months, I don't think anyone can blame the government for that,' he told PF.
'Employers are pleased that there will still be negotiations. My guess is that they will still be meaningful.'
Fire Brigades Union leader Andy Gilchrist said he would not give 'a knee-jerk response' to the proposals. The union's executive will discuss them over three days from July 8.
PFjul2003
