EU threat to region's firefighters

Jan 30 2009 by Julie Watt, Dumfries Standard Friday

DUMFRIES and Galloway’s fire and rescue service is facing a serious threat from new European employment rules.

The vital network of stations manned by part-time firefighters could be destroyed by changes in the EU’s working time directive which is due to come into force within the next three years.

They would end Britain’s opt-out clause covering the maximum 48-hour working week.

And that has sparked fears that the region’s 300 part-time firefighters could be prevented from doing the job.

Chief Fire Officer David Wynne said: “Retained firefighters make up the majority of our force.

“They may be on cover for 24 hours a day and on average they cover around 120 hours per week.

“Under the new legislation that will be limited to 48 hours per week, if you do the maths you can see the problems we would be left with.”

Sixteen of the region’s 17 fire stations are manned by retained staff.

Only Dumfries headquarters is full-time although there is a partial full-time presence at Stranraer.

According to Ian Blake, chairman of the police, fire and rescue committee, the south west would be one of the areas worst hit by the EU directive.

He said: “This would have major implications for the fire service in Dumfries and Galloway which relies very heavily on retained firefighters.

“If this ruling goes ahead it would potentially mean retained firefighters could not work. If we lost the use of our retained fire staff then we would be in big trouble.”

He warned that would have huge cost implications with budgets soaring to pay for more full-time staff.

Mr Blake, who is also a member of the Scottish Fire Conveners’ Forum, predicts they could increase by up to £40million.

He added: “If the directive took precedence with no exception to the rules, the only alternative would be to make the retained fighters full-time. The cost implication of that is huge.

“This would also mean upgrading almost every fire station in the region making them accessible for full-time 24 hours manning. The fire service receives around £10million in its budget but that would easily be stretched to as much as £50million.”

Dumfriesshire MP David Mundell warned that emergency responses in the region’s rural and remote areas currently covered by retained crews would be severely hit.

He said: “There is no realistic alternative to the retained fire-fighters in our most rural communities if we want to guarantee that firefighters can get to fires in a reasonable time. That’s why we must do all we can to resist changes which will threaten the future of retained firefighters.

“We should be celebrating the achievements of these pubic-spirited individuals not calling their existence in question.”

MP Russell Brown plans to meet the UK minister for the fire service to see what clarification he can give on the possible impact on fire fighting forces in our region.

He said: “The UK Government is determined to keep the opt-out from the EU Working Time Directive, which forces employers to limit the working week for employees to 48 hours, and which has led to the concerns being raised for retained fire fighters in our region.”