GOVERNMENT SHOULD ACT TO AVOID FIREFIGHTER STRIKE

THE Government should act immediately to avoid the possibility of a strike over a firefighter pensions dispute.

Firefighters aged 55 or over could be thrown on to the employment scrapheap without access to their pensions after the Tory-led Government failed to properly negotiate scheme changes.

That is despite a clear recommendation in a Government-commissioned report that firefighters aged 55 or over who are retired on fitness grounds should be able to access pensions.

Nobody wants to see strike action but the Government’s inaction suggests they either don’t comprehend the scale of this problem or simply don’t care.

I fully sympathise with the frustrations of firefighters.

They must be beginning to feel victimised by a Government which has attacked their service and is now attacking the hard working individuals who risk their lives for others.

Somebody in the cabinet needs to grasp the nettle and intervene to remove the risk that this vital emergency service will be blighted by strike action.

A strike would be wholly avoidable but the risk grows with every day this Government sits on its hands instead of taking decisive action.

It is quite clear it needs to look again at the report it commissioned, properly consider the evidence and recommendations in it and take steps to avoid a strike.