The Fire Brigades Union has announced a further series of strikes to protest about proposed changes to their pensions after talks with government and employers failed to produce a breakthrough.

 

English and Welsh firefighters will strike on:

- Friday 2 May, between noon and 5pm

- Saturday 3 May, between 2pm and 2am

- Sunday 4 May, between 10am and 3pm.

There will also be a ban on voluntary overtime across England and Wales from 3pm on Sunday 4 May until noon on Friday 9 May.

In Scotland there will be a ban on voluntary overtime between noon on Friday 2 May and noon on Friday 9 May.

'Government burying head in the sand'

Matt Wrack, FBU general secretary, said: “After three years of negotiations and an intense four months presenting an indisputable, evidence-based case for the need to ensure a pension scheme that takes into account the unique occupation of firefighting, the government is still burying its head in the sand.

“We remain totally committed to resolving the dispute through negotiation, and are ready to meet to consider a workable proposal as soon as possible.”

The government and the union have been locked in negotiations since the last strike on 3 January 2014 and following the last meeting of the union’s executive council on 9 and 10 April, the union wrote to the fire minister Brandon Lewis saying that if they hadn’t received any proposals by 24 April, they would conclude that the government was unwilling or unable to offer any improvement.

The Union say no new proposals have been forthcoming so as a result, at a meeting on Thursday 24 April the union’s executive council unanimously decided to take further industrial action.

Courtesy Eastleigh News