Firefighters to vote on strike motion after rejecting pay deal

Firefighters are to vote on strike motion after rejecting a 5 per cent pay rise in an ongoing row over wages and circumstances.

The Fireplace Brigades Union (FBU) confirmed on Wednesday that it plans to poll its members after the supply of improved phrases was turned down.

Matt Wrack, the FBU normal secretary, mentioned the union’s members “have spoken”.

In a press release, the FBU mentioned that, in a consultative vote, 79 per cent of its members voted to reject the 5 per cent pay supply.

Some 78 per cent of eligible members took half within the poll.

A poll on strike motion will open on Monday 5 December and shut on Monday 23 January, the FBU mentioned.

Mr Wrack mentioned: “This results of the consultative poll, on a two week turnaround, exhibits that there’s exceptional power of feeling amongst firefighters and management employees on this derisory pay supply.

“The ball is within the employers’ and authorities’s court docket. There may be nonetheless a chance to resolve this dispute and we shall be writing to Fireplace Ministers and authorities departments throughout the UK requesting pressing conferences.”

He added: “Now we have firefighters utilizing foodbanks. Our members labored by way of the pandemic to assist defend their communities, taking over further duties to take action.

“An extra real-terms pay cuts is a fully disgusting strategy to thank them. While strike motion is all the time a final resort, our members merely can’t go on like this.”

If firefighters vote to strike it could be the primary nationwide industrial motion over pay since 2003.

It comes after nurses voted for a mass walkout final week in a row over pay. The nursing union’s boss mentioned members had been “pushed” to the place the place hanging was their solely possibility, including that nurses can now not be “ignored” by ministers.

Industrial motion is anticipated to be held earlier than the tip of the 12 months at among the UK’s greatest hospitals, together with Man’s and St Thomas’ reverse Parliament, the Royal Infirmary in Edinburgh, College Hospital Wales and Belfast’s Royal Victoria.

The RCN introduced on Wednesday final week that its members within the majority of NHS employers throughout the UK had backed industrial motion.