Firefighters in Lincolnshire have reached an agreement with their employers over plans to change working hours, averting any threat of industrial action.
Plans to sack 112 full-time fire officers before reinstating them on new contracts with different shift patterns will not now go ahead after talks between Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue and the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) have concluded successfully, the Lincolnshire Echo has reported.
The agreement will mean that firefighters at four stations manned during the day – Gainsborough, Skegness, Grantham and Boston – will work on an on-call system to cover the stations 24 hours a day.
Under the current arrangement, only some firefighters based at the stations provide on-call cover – meaning part-time firemen have to help out.
Elsewhere, in South Yorkshire, the fire authority has once again refused to withdraw its notice to dismiss 744 firefighters only to re-employ them on new contracts with shift changes. Personnel Today previously reported that 20 HR and finance staff were being trained to drive fire response vehicles to cover for officers if they went on strike.
