Firefighters threaten strike action over threat to cut night-time cover in East Sussex

1:12pm Tuesday 15th January 2008

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Firefighters' union leaders are warning strike action could follow cuts to night-time cover at town centre stations.

East Sussex Fire Authority is meeting this week to decide whether to change crews' working hours.

But firefighters have shown unanimous opposition to the changes in talks with management.

The Fire Brigades' Union has told the authority: "Changes to shift working patterns often bring with them industrial unrest, something which the FBU in East Sussex has no desire to see.

"Around the country there have been various proposals for shift changes, and where we have seen those shift changes introduced, industrial disputes have often ensued, including ballots for strike action."

The authority is considering four options for shift patterns.

Two are designed to stop routine over-staffing by using fewer firefighters at quieter periods of the day.

Chief fire officer Des Prichard said staff consulted have been '100 per cent' against the changes, which they believed put cost-cutting before public safety.

He said: "Firefighters were very concerned about a possible reduction in emergency cover at night in the city of Brighton and Hove and Hastings.

"They described risk levels as varying and unpredictable by night and there was a sense that reducing the number of available engines at certain times and/or changing crewing from 24-hour to 12 hours would increase the potential dangers to the public.

"There is a widely held view that this and all other integrated risk management plans are aimed at making cuts to the service and that integrated risk management is solely about saving money."

The FBU's report said: "We believe that funding shortfalls lie at the root of these proposals and not life risk to East Sussex residents and visitors."

The authority's chairman, Councillor Mike Murphy, told The Argus the authority does not favour one choice ahead of the others.

He said: "We have never taken the view that there is a preferred approach. We have to consider whether we want to change it."

He said any decision made at the authority's meeting on Thursday would be followed by months of negotiation of the final details.

In the last seven years emergency calls have been higher on average between 9am and midnight than between midnight and 9am, peaking between 5pm and 9pm.

In Brighton and Hove and East Sussex, six fire stations are permanently staffed 24 hours a day.

Hove has 63 firefighters, Preston Circus in Brighton has 65, Roedean 29, Eastbourne 65, Hastings 41 and The Ridge in Ore, west of Hastings, 29.

Firefighters work two day shifts and two night shifts, then have four days off.

The stations are over-staffed to make sure if staff are ill or absent enough firefighters are still available.

The authority has put forward a variable crewing option where firefighters would not work fixed shifts as a team, but would start work individually at different times of the day.

More firefighters would be available between 10am and 10pm, and fewer overnight.

The option would mean there would not be enough staff to man all a station's fire engines at quieter times.

The authority's proposal reads: "As calls decrease after midnight, then rise after 8am, it may be more appropriate to provide sufficient crewing for some fire appliances to be available for 12 or 16 hours per day, rather than 24 hours."

An annualised hours option would mean a pre-arranged roster, with a constant number of firefighters working all the time and changes to the number of rest days firefighters get.

The third option is to keep the current shift system, which means stations are fully staffed seven days a week, 24 hours a day.

The fourth option is to combine the first three systems to utilise staff capacity more effectively.

The authority has held meetings with staff representatives at Brighton, Eastbourne and Hastings.

The authority is meeting at the Fire and Rescue Service headquarters in Upperton Road, Eastbourne, at 10.30am on Thursday.

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