Firefighters across the country have announced a significant escalation of strike action, with four days of strikes starting on Friday (Oct 31).
The strikes will run over the weekend when many people will be holding fireworks celebrations – historically one of the busiest times of the year for fire crews.
However, Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue bosses are reassuring the public that emergency cover will be in place to protect them.
The strike is scheduled to take place from 6pm on Friday until 6pm on Tuesday and follows a refusal from the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) to bring any new offer to the table over pensions, despite two months of talks.
Dave Ramscar, chief fire officer at Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue, said: “Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue has plans in place to ensure that we continue to provide an emergency response within the county.
“We accept that any planned industrial action will impact on our ability to deliver business as usual, but we are confident that the implementation of our plans will enable us to continue to answer 999 calls and to respond to incidents as quickly as possible.”
The Fire Brigade Union states that it has negotiated in good faith and has taken up every opportunity to make its case and to seek changes to the government’s pension plans, which the union says are expensive and unworkable.
Matt Wrack, FBU general secretary, said: “Firefighters are incandescent following two months of negotiations which have led to no new proposals.
“Firefighters will not stand by and see our members’ pension rights destroyed by a government which does not give a damn about the safety or wellbeing of firefighters in the long term.
“The public do not want 60-year-olds tackling fires. Everyone understands the stupidity of these plans – except government Ministers.
“We remain committed to resolving this dispute in the interests of our members and the public at large.”
The FBU has opposed government attacks on firefighter pensions and the union has presented large quantities of professional evidence to demonstrate the proposals do not take account of the real operational demands in a firefighter’s role.
Government Fire Minister Penny Mordaunt described the strike action as “completely unnecessary”.
She said under the proposed new scheme, nearly three-quarters of firefighters would see no change in their pension age in 2015 and a firefighter who earned £29,000 would retire after a full career aged 60 with a £19,000-a-year pension, rising to £26,000 with the state pension.
