Nottinghamshire firefighters union chairman welcomes progress on pay - but warns there are still questions to be answered

The chairman of the Fire Brigades Union’s Nottinghamshire branch has welcomed the news a new pay offer has been put to FBU members, so preventing strike action for now.
By John Smith
Published 9th Feb 2023, 14:31 BST
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But Steve Tucker, a serving firefighter in Worksop, warned there were still questions to be answered and work to be done before the threat of strike action could be removed.

The new offer is for 7 per cent backdated to July 2022, and then 5 per cent from July 1 this year.

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This has now been put to a ballot of members, and the FBU has postponed the announcement of strike dates as a result.

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Nottinghamshire FBU welcomes the progress on pay but the offer still has questions that need answeringNottinghamshire FBU welcomes the progress on pay but the offer still has questions that need answering
Nottinghamshire FBU welcomes the progress on pay but the offer still has questions that need answering
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Does offer address all the concerns?

Mr Tucker said: “It’s a huge step forward from where we started with the initial 2 per cent offered, so I’m pleased we’ve made progress. However, do I think this addresses all the issues in terms of how far we’ve fallen behind and current inflation and everything else, possibly not.

“There’s still a lot of questions around funding for it. Central Government isn’t going to fund the pay offer so it will be funded locally.

“So ultimately, if we do accept this pay offer, it will mean accepting cuts to our own services, which is a very difficult thing to come to terms with and something we would need to consider very carefully before moving forward.

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“The other thing to consider is that we took an offer of 5 per cent back to the membership last year and it was overwhelmingly rejected.

“So does 5 per cent meet the needs for this year? Inflation hasn’t stopped growing yet so will 5 per cent help cover these issues? Probably not.

“I think that by lumping the two parts together, it inflates the figure but doesn’t really address the issues, it almost masks them a bit. It’s a two-year pay deal on what we were pushing for last year.

“So they’ve brought it forward a bit to try and make it seem a bit more palatable than perhaps it really is when you get down to the nitty gritty of it. But I’m pleased at the progress that’s been made, I’m pleased the NJC (National Joint Council) is working with us and I look forward to consulting more with current members on this offer in the future.”

Related topics:NottinghamshireWorksopInflation