Submitted by SWFBU on
7 November 2013
TO: ALL MEMBERS
Dear Brother/Sister
PENSION DEVELOPMENTS LATEST UPDATE AND NEXT STEPS
I would like to start by thanking you for your involvement in the three periods of strike action that have been called over the last few weeks. Our strikes have been solidly supported by members with reports indicating that the public also broadly understands and supports many of our concerns.
Over the last few days there has been an exchange of correspondence with the English Fire Minister, Brandon Lewis and the Chair of the National Employers, Maurice Heaster. All correspondence has been placed on the FBU website.
You will be aware that the Executive Council reintroduced strike action following the suspension of a 5 hour strike planned for 19 October. This suspension was to allow the Government the opportunity to provide a guarantee on the No Job No Pension element of our trade dispute. Unfortunately rather than receiving any sort of guarantee the FBU received written clarification from the Fire Service Employers confirming precisely the opposite. They recognised our concern about firefighters being faced with fitness-related dismissal (although they do disagree with us on the potential numbers involved).The Employers also clarified they were unable to offer the guarantee we would require on this issue.
Mr Lewis has responded by suggesting that he could address our concerns by providing guidance in the Fire and Rescue Service National Framework document. We had already explained that this ‘guidance’ does not constitute a guarantee. To assist the discussions on this point, the FBU have provided a draft regulation that would provide such a guarantee. We have explained that this could easily be inserted into the 2015 scheme regulations which are not yet drafted. It could thereby provide a remedy to this particular element of the 8 point trade dispute. To-date the Fire Minister has not agreed to this suggestion.
Evidence of the need for a firm guarantee was further demonstrated last week when CFOA President, Paul Fuller wrote a letter to all Chiefs and CFOA members suggesting that firefighters age 55 plus who cannot maintain fitness will face a capability dismissal unless they ‘choose’ to take a reduced pension.
He stated that:
If, after appropriate support was provided and after an appropriate time period was allowed for the individual to regain their fitness, the individual failed to reach the agreed standard, the FRS would commence the process to dismiss on capability grounds, but at this time the firefighter could decide to retire as they have the right to take early retirement after 55.
Mr Fuller went onto dismiss the option of an early retirement for firefighters at age 55 with an unreduced pension. He stated that not only would such a measure incur a huge pension cost for the Authority but it may incur unauthorised tax charges to both the Authority and the individual concerned. He confirmed his position on the issue saying that the Employer’s best option under law would probably be the capability dismissal route. This is precisely the point we have been making for more than two years and the point which the Government has dismissed as ‘scaremongering’. The only difference is that Mr Fuller described such a dismissal of firefighters as a matter of choice i.e. the firefighter would have ‘chosen’ to be dismissed by not taking a pension reduction of more than 40%.
Similar letters were sent to firefighters in other Brigades, totally undermining and contradicting the CLG Fire Minister’s comment in his letter (23 October 2013) that a ‘good employer’ would seek to redeploy an individual in this situation or, if aged over 55, offer an Authority initiated early retirement.
We have written to the Fire Minister and the National Employers’ Chair referring to the content of this letter and reiterating our concerns about this issue and confirming our insistence on a firm guarantee that this will not happen.
Government Worsen Offer to Firefighters
In addition to this we received a letter on Friday 1 November (3 hours prior to the strike action) confirming that if FBU members took any further strike action it would be seen as an outright rejection of the Government proposals and the offer made on 19 June regarding enhanced actuarial reductions to firefighters choosing to retire between the ages of 55 and 57 would be taken off the table.
We have written to Brandon Lewis outlining our disappointment with the decision to remove this proposal and stating that his action has moved us further away from any potential resolution to the dispute. The removal of this offer does mean that a firefighter who might need to access the pension before the age of 60 would face a reduction in excess of 40%.
Contributions
The ‘No Job No Pension’ issue is a key part of our trade dispute but it is important that members recognise that there are a number of other key unresolved issues. One of these is our position that there should be no more employee contribution increases.
FBU members have already seen two years of pension contribution increases and now Governments across the UK are starting the process for a further increase for 2014.
A paper to the Firefighters Pension Committee on 16 October outlined the proposals for 2014 increases. These proposals would mean a further increase of 1.3% for the majority of FPS members (taking contributions to 14.2% or higher) and 0.8% for the majority of NFPS members (taking contributions to 10.4% or higher). The proposals also confirm that NFPS members may see further increases of around 2.2% beyond 2014. An updated briefing showing the full contributions proposals is available on the FBU website. Please take the time to read this.
The FBU has presented a significant amount of evidence, which confirm that the schemes are becoming unaffordable and will become unsustainable if Government is allowed to continue unchallenged.
We cannot allow firefighters to be priced out of their pension schemes. We are currently preparing further evidence and documentation to oppose these increases.
Strike Action and Next Steps
Although we are disappointed by the latest punitive measures, the Executive Council suspected that the Fire Minister might remove the 19 June proposal, as he has threatened it on several occasions before. In anticipation of this they agreed that, if he did, the General Secretary and the President have the authority to call a further period of strike action. This course of action will now be enacted.
Strike action has now been called for Wednesday 13 November between 10.00 am and 2.00 pm.
Second Ballot – Action Short of Strike
In addition to this the Executive Council also agreed that the General Secretary and the President had the authority to proceed with an additional ballot to allow FBU members to take action up to strike action. This will not affect our ability to call any strike action and is an additional measure that we feel will be important in strengthening the weapons available to us in this difficult campaign.
This ballot will also include FBU members in Scotland and will include Control members. Members in Northern Ireland will not be balloted at this stage due to the different legislative stage of pension changes.
The ballot will commence next week and will conclude on 4 December. Members are urged to VOTE YES in this ballot.
All the correspondence between the FBU, the Fire Minister and the National Employers will be available on the FBU website www.fbu.org.uk Please ensure that you are up-to-date with the current position and that everyone on your Branch is aware of the latest developments.
The Executive Council continues to meet regularly to consider developments. A further round of member briefing meetings will take place shortly.
Best wishes.
Yours fraternally
MATT WRACK
GENERAL SECRETARY
