Firefighters could strike over changes to roles and contracts
Firefighters are to ballot for strike action in a dispute over their duties under future contracts.
The Fire Brigades Union is unhappy about a contract West Midlands Fire Service has signed which sees employees sent out to help elderly people who have fallen.
The service provides the call-outs to Wolverhampton and Dudley councils.
The FBU has demanded the contracts be withdrawn immediately, saying the work is outside the agreed role of a firefighter
It has raised concerns about the training of firefighters for the new roles as well as the risk it could impact cover for actual fires.
The ballot for strike action will take place next week. It is not clear when or for how long the walk-out would be.
Andrew Scattergood, chairman of the FBU in the West Midlands, said: “The new contracts give management an unhealthy amount of power to dictate the work firefighters do.
"The so-called 'Labour-led' fire authority is creating a two-tier workforce between those who are contracted to do any work and those who have contracts that the public would expect a firefighter to have. It is a classic divide and conquer strategy.
"Firefighters are not only angry at the contracts being issued, they are gravely concerned about the management culture where staff are routinely ignored and their concerns dismissed.
"Our members do not want to take industrial action but they cannot and will not accept a two-tier workforce.
“It is not the right of management to change contracts on a whim.”
Matt Wrack, general secretary of the FBU, said: “Strike action is always the last option that any firefighter wants to take but sometimes it is necessary.
“Firefighters in the West Midlands have made it absolutely clear that these contracts are unacceptable.”
The union is campaigning against the contracts under the banner Fired Up, which has more than 10,000 signatures.
Previously, West Midlands Fire Service’s Chief Fire Officer, Phil Loach, said the contract was ‘a fantastic opportunity to help the most vulnerable’.
Crews at Wolverhampton and Fallings Park attended 2,119 falls as part of the contract with Wolverhampton council in 2016/17, compared to 992 actual fires in the city.
The FBU claim the ‘vast majority’ of workers at the fire service are members of the union.
