Firefighters demand televised debate on pensions as 24-hour strike looms

Firefighters are demanding a national televised debate on government attacks on pensions with the English fire minister ahead of tomorrow’s day-long strike.

A 24-hour strike — the longest yet in the three-year campaign — will take place from 9am on Thursday 12 June, with another set for 10am-5pm on Saturday 21 June, after the government confirmed it would plough ahead with its pensions proposals without further discussions.

But Matt Wrack, general secretary of the Fire Brigades Union, has challenged the minister to take part in a televised debate on the proposals, which the union says are unworkable, unaffordable and unfair.

Wrack said: “The government is ignoring all the evidence from it’s own reports on these proposals and has failed to counter our arguments in three years of negotiations.

“Their attacks will radically damage the fire and rescue service and it’s only fair that the public are given a chance to see the minister himself challenged over these ludicrous proposals.

“It’s time for the government’s spin to end. If he’s confident in his arguments, surely he’ll accept the opportunity for us to both lay our cases out in public?”

The FBU says increasing numbers of members are considering leaving the pension scheme as a result of its decreasing affordability — posing difficult questions over its sustainability.

Under the government’s proposals, firefighters who are forced to retire before the age of 60 as a result of ageing will have half of their pension taken away. The alternative they face is to be sacked.

The government’s own report, published in December 2013 by Dr Tony Williams, found that large numbers of firefighters would be unable to maintain operational fitness until 60.

The two strikes will be the thirteenth and fourteenth over pensions. The first was on Thursday 24 September 2013.

Between the two strikes firefighters will not carry out any voluntary overtime — which is routinely needed by many fire and rescue services to maintain fire cover — or conduct training of strikebreakers between the beginning of the first strike and 9am on Sunday 22 June.