Submitted by SWFBU on
TO: ALL MEMBERS
Dear Brother/Sister
PENSIONS: END OF EIGHT DAYS OF STRIKE ACTION
On behalf of the Executive Council, I would like to once again pay tribute to all FBU members who have taken part in action in defence of pensions over eight consecutive days and have now commenced an open-ended period of action short of strike. Although the individual strikes remained of a short duration, this was obviously the longest period of action during our current campaign. I have said many times that this has been a long and hard campaign. It continues, primarily through your solidarity and determination. That solidarity, unity and determination are indeed things to be proud of.
Criticism from Chief Officers
The periods of action called during the eight days prompted some criticism from a number of Chief Fire Officers who suggested that the tactics were deliberately disruptive. It should come as no surprise to anyone that industrial action is disruptive and is intended to be so. The alternative would simply to have been to allow the Government to steal our pensions and impose an unworkable scheme without opposition. We were clearly not ready to do that. We are still not.
Those CFO’s who are offended by what we have done would make better use of their time in urging Ministers to listen to the professional evidence we have presented and work to resolve the dispute.
A changed position
There have been a number of significant developments during this period. The (now former) DCLG Fire Minister, Brandon Lewis, announced that he would reinstate the proposals which he made in June 2013 but withdrew in order to penalise us for balloting members for strike action. This is clearly an improvement to the ‘offer’ which has been on the table since the strike action began. It reduces the impact of actuarial reductions and it removes an obvious area of age discrimination in the previous DCLG proposals. This is a clear shift from the position Brandon Lewis was explicitly stating in writing just a short while earlier.
It is significant that a whole range of people, from Brandon Lewis to some local Fire Service politicians to some Chief Officers, have been urging the Union for a considerable time to end strike action and accept that nothing further would move. If anybody had listened to them, firefighters would be considerably worse off as a result. A simple comparison between DCLG’s former position and their new position will confirm this. Thankfully, for all concerned, we did not listen.
This shift in position will have been due to a range of factors, our lobbying, our industrial action – and the threat of legal action. We have explained to DCLG that we believe we have a strong legal challenge to their proposals on two grounds; age discrimination; and errors in the calculations of actuarial reductions. The latest move by DCLG is likely to have been, in part at least, an attempt to address one aspect of this. We do not believe their actions are sufficient to remove our legal challenge. We continue to consult with legal advisors on this and other legal matters.
New DCLG Fire Minister
We met the new DCLG Fire Minister, Penny Mordaunt, on 17 July, her first full day in post. We were given the opportunity to set out in some detail the Union’s concerns regarding pensions and we did this. Her letter to us and our response is attached for your information.
We will report further on this meeting to the Executive Council at two meetings scheduled over the next week. The Executive Council will consider this, along with reviewing the most recent action, legal advice, views of Brigade Committees and other relevant matters before deciding what steps should be taken next.
Wales and Scotland
Further discussions have taken place with Ministers or their teams in both Wales and in Scotland. Unfortunately, to-date no revised proposals have been presented by the Minister in Wales and the Executive Council will consider what steps need to be taken in that regard.
In Scotland, there are already alternative proposals to those presented by Westminster and discussions have taken place about incorporating these into pension regulations. In addition discussion is underway regarding other potential improvements. On this basis, and after considering the views of the views of Scottish officials, the Executive Council decided not to call further industrial action in Scotland at this stage. A letter has been sent to the Scottish Fire Minister, Roseanna Cunningham and the Executive Council will keep this dialogue under consideration. The issue of calling further industrial action will also be kept under consideration.
Northern Ireland
Members will be aware of the very different position in Northern Ireland, where a proposal has been made for a pension scheme with a Normal Pension Age (NPA) of 55. This is currently the only proposed new scheme anywhere in the public sector which includes such an NPA. As such it is highly significant. The Region 2 Regional Committee were presented with a report on the issue on 18 July and discussions are now underway with members locally. Further details of the proposal will be circulated to members shortly.
‘Freedom and choice in pensions’ – another significant development
You will note in the letters between us and Penny Mordaunt that the Chancellor has now responded to a public consultation on pensions (‘Freedom and choice in pensions’) which included proposals to increase the minimum pension age (for tax relief purposes) to 57. If this had been adopted as policy it would have created an even greater difficulty in trying to resolve our current dispute.
The decision to exempt firefighters from such provision is therefore very welcome. It was this issue which caused considerable difficulty during our negotiations with DCLG on and after March 19. Since the threat (of increasing the minimum pension age to 57) has been removed, it is to be hoped that DCLG enter a new period of genuine dialogue and make revised proposals for our members to consider.
These are obviously complex issues. We shall issue further circulars and try to produce further short films to assist Branch Officials in explaining all issues and to assist members as far as possible. Please monitor the FBU website.
Best wishes.
Yours fraternally
MATT WRACK
