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Euro ruling 'threat to fire service cover' in Sussex

11:50am Monday 16th February 2009 in


More than a third of Sussex's firefighters could be lost if a controversial European Union diktat is imposed on the UK, campaigners have warned.

They claim moves to force Britain to adopt the European Working Time Directive would leave the part-time, retained fire service unviable because it would be illegal for anyone to work for more than 48 hours a week.

Retained firefighters, many of whom hold down full-time day jobs on top of their commitment to the fire service, make up 37% of all firefighter posts in East Sussex and 44% in West Sussex.

The UK has long been granted an opt-out to the directive but following a recent vote by the European Parliament it will be scrapped in 2012.

Replacing retained firefighters, who earn on average between £5,000 and £8,000 a year for agreeing to be available for up to 120 hours per week, with 24-hour whole-time cover would be extremely expensive, leading to fears the coverage and reliability of the service would suffer.

Gary Towson, from West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service, said: "We would dispute that it would take hours to respond to calls.

"We will be watching the outcome of this issue very closely in order to see what impact it will have.

"Our retained firefighters are very important to us, with 19 out of our 28 stations fully retained."

East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service was unable to comment.

Comments(12)

NoWaySeriously says...
12:07pm Mon 16 Feb 09

**** Europeans. They can't apply blanket rules across the whole or Europe. It doesn't work like that. Each country is different and has different requirements in order to function.

We either need to make this clear, or get out of Europe. And don't even get me started on the European Court of Hippy, sorry, Human Rights.

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GreenGrocer says...
12:07pm Mon 16 Feb 09

Hmmm... Perhaps it's time for the government to fully support the fire service then, and how about the RNLI too while I'm at it!

It's pretty poor that they don't, mind u, I suppose it's not a vote winner for these wind-bag out of touch with the real world politicians (of all parties, not just Labour)!

Probably all out quaffing the wine n scoffing the nibbles at their posh receptions, just like the councillors neck all the freebies at council meetings at our expense!

security word neck-cold!!

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Fight Back says...
12:29pm Mon 16 Feb 09

If the EU thinks it's going to stop me working the hours I want it can think again - if I want to work more than 48 hours it's MY choice. Time to leave immediately.

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Tye says...
12:53pm Mon 16 Feb 09

The EU is a corrupt organisation that will slowly strangle itself hopefully especially with all the little countries formerly "within" Russia and run by the russian mafia

anyone remember the story within the last week about the rapist(?) whose human rights were diminished because his victim killed herself - thanx EU

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Scoomer says...
1:20pm Mon 16 Feb 09

GreenGrocer, I know a couple of people wh owork for the RNLI and they're fairly adamant that government money would be a poison chalice: all the time they're free of state funding, they're also free of state meddling, target-setting, cost-cutting exercises and productivity reviews.

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Crunchie says...
1:40pm Mon 16 Feb 09

Fight Back wrote:
If the EU thinks it's going to stop me working the hours I want it can think again - if I want to work more than 48 hours it's MY choice. Time to leave immediately.
Nasty EU! Horrid EU! Why won't it let our workers be downtrodden and overworked? Why won't they let us damage our productivity and harm our families?

Workers in East End sweatshops don't need protection from exploitation, because I don't need to myself.

Also, the EU is corrupt and evil, but for some reason only people in the UK think so. It must be because we are perfect in every respect.

It's all true, I read it in the Daily Mail.

Waaaah! Waaaaah!

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Tye says...
4:51pm Mon 16 Feb 09

Crunchie,
You have your view and others have theirs - no need to denigrate them for it - Its the trendy PC response is it not?

You disagree with me SO you must be racist AND a Daily Mail reader

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NoWaySeriously says...
6:23pm Mon 16 Feb 09

There is already a 48 hour law. But you an opt out. What's wrong with that? I'd never opt out, personally, but you know. It's there for people who don't want socials lives.

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Crunchie says...
6:35pm Mon 16 Feb 09

Tye wrote:
Crunchie,
You have your view and others have theirs - no need to denigrate them for it - Its the trendy PC response is it not?

You disagree with me SO you must be racist AND a Daily Mail reader
Trendy PC thing to do? OK, if you say so. I didn't say anyone was racist - most people do get their Euromisinformation from our glorious foreign-owned press.

As for having an opt-out, it sounds like a perfectly reasonable thing until the first time you get your opt-out form to sign along with your contract of employment. Like the minimum wage, with a 'voluntary' opt-out it's pointless.

I don't think 48 hours a week is a massive restriction - when you consider that's on average across the whole year. People forget that every other EU country has this rule in place, and they don't appear to have collapsed economically (at least, not worse than us).

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sussex2 says...
7:19pm Mon 16 Feb 09

I think 48 hours a week is enough for anyone. There has to be a balance between work and life.
Would the objectors to this wish the workders were whipped more and lashed to their oars in a bid to keep them working?
If we all have to shell out more taxes because of this restriction then so be it!

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william of orange says...
10:53pm Mon 16 Feb 09


The EU...that'll be the organisation whose own auditors have refused to sign off their accounts for 14 years in a row...!!

Hardly an organisation to tell others what to do!

Maybe other countries don't moan so much about it because they are net takers of cash whilst we are a net giver of cash to the EU.

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twosugars says...
8:01am Tue 17 Feb 09

GreenGrocer wrote:
Hmmm... Perhaps it's time for the government to fully support the fire service then, and how about the RNLI too while I'm at it! It's pretty poor that they don't, mind u, I suppose it's not a vote winner for these wind-bag out of touch with the real world politicians (of all parties, not just Labour)! Probably all out quaffing the wine n scoffing the nibbles at their posh receptions, just like the councillors neck all the freebies at council meetings at our expense! security word neck-cold!!
the volunteers who crew the lifeboats do it knowing they have the best equipment and boats available. if the RNLI were run by government they would end up with cheap shoddy equipment supplied by the cheapest bidder.

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