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Firefighters take industrial action
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The Government said yesterday evening that it has been informed by the District Officer of the T & G that fire fighters of the City Fire Brigade will be taking selective industrial action as from Monday.
A statement says: Management of the City Fire Brigade recently implemented procedures to restrict access to the working premises of the Fire Station to members of the public, other than on official business, following best working practices in Fire Services in the UK and elsewhere.
Fire Fighters are unhappy that these measures have had an impact on some social practices, including the fact that it will no longer be possible to undertake social activities within the Fire Station premises. However, the Fire Service has a perfectly suitable Social Club, annexed to the Fire Station, which was provided precisely for the sort of social events that the fire fighters are now arguing should continue to be held within the Fire Station itself.
As a result, they sought a meeting with the Minister with responsibility for the Fire Service, Yvette Del Agua. Although Government considers this to be a matter for management, the Minister agreed, as a goodwill gesture, to receive a small delegation of members to listen firsthand to their concerns. She objected, however, to the demand placed upon her to receive the shop stewards of the CFB, on the basis that the issue affecting the members is not an industrial matter, but purely a social one.
As a result of the T & G?s insistence of having union representation, the meeting with the Minister had to be cancelled. It is over this issue, and not over the main issue of discontent [the effect that the new procedures implemented by Management have had on their social calendar] that the fire fighters will be taking selective industrial action on Monday.
The Minister with responsibility for the Fire Service, Yvette Del Agua, said: ?I fully recognise the T & G and its representatives when it comes to discussing industrial matters affecting its membership. Irrespective of the fact that the issue affecting the fire-fighters is of a social nature and for Management to deal with, I agreed to meet with a delegation which did not include the shop stewarts. Their refusal to meet me on these very reasonable terms can only lead me to conclude that the primary issue of discontent cannot be of great importance to them, and that they have ulterior motives?.
Government adds that it finds it incomprehensible that the T & G, which is supposed to be a responsible Union, should fully back the unreasonable and unjustified stance being taken by the fire fighters, when its District Officer, Charlie Cisarello, has already recognised that the issue is purely social and not of an industrial nature.
Furthermore, the Government says it finds it totally unacceptable that the Minister should be held to ransom, and the public potentially put at risk, at the whim of shop stewards who are having a tantrum because the Minister, justifiably so, has declined to see them. Government will take whatever steps are necessary to ensure that public safety is not jeopardised by what it considers to be the irresponsible and unjustified action of the fire-fighters and its Union.
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