Fire strike avoided

The threat of fire strikes was averted today, following agreement between employers and firefighters' union leaders.

A spokesman from the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority said both sides had reached a resolution in the bitter dispute, which centred on employers wanting bank holidays to be treated as normal working days.

The FBU had said this could mean extra staff having to work on public holidays at a cost of £30 million a year.

This afternoon's agreement means a ballot on strike action of some 52,000 FBU members will now be suspended.

Negotiations broke down earlier this month, and the union claimed local authority employers had turned a "shambles into a crisis" after a deal to pay firefighters a 3.5% rise from last November and another 4.2% from last month was scuppered at the last minute.

Public holiday working is tied to the 3.5% rise, and the issue of whether the fire service has modernised sufficiently was also a moot point. If agreed, the increase of 4.2% would be released.

Since the breakdown of talks, employers and the FBU have been meeting informally with TUC general secretary Brendan Barber.

At the National Joint Council (NJC) meeting today, the employers and FBU agreed to a form of words, brokered by the TUC, which means public holidays are to be regarded as a normal working day.

Firefighters will carry out normal duties on bank holidays while it is recognised that they are not "normal" working days.

Previous arrangements for double time and a day off in lieu for those rostered to work will still apply.

Today's agreement means both the 3.5% and the 4.2% rises will be paid immediately, according to the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority (LFEPA).

LFEPA chair Val Shawcross welcomed the agreement, and said: "I am very pleased that an agreement has been reached, meaning that we can now focus on the modernisation of the fire service and the community fire safety work we are doing to make London a safer city.

"The success of the talks mean that the only barrier holding back the agreed pay rise for firefighters, backdated to November 2003, has now been removed and firefighters will be paid as soon as possible.

"A lot of work has been done on the June 2003 agreement to modernise and it's about time we celebrated these achievements and moved forward with the delivery of an excellent fire service."