‘Disaster’ looming for the fire service over EU rules

Mar 24 2009 by Neil Preston, The Journal

VITAL emergency cover in parts of Northumberland could be lost following a controversial EU ruling on working hours, fire chiefs warned last night.

The county currently has 155 retained firefighters on lifesaving duty from the end of a pager to attend call-outs in rural areas.

New restrictions under the EU Working Time Directive (WTD) seek to impose a strict 48-hour maximum working week on all British employees, a rule already adopted by many European countries.

A majority in the European Parliament has voted through a ruling to abolish British workers’ current rights, dating back to 1993, to opt-out from the 48-hour ceiling, with no exceptions.

If the changes are accepted by the Government, it would become illegal for employees to work more than 48 hours a week, including “on-call” time, even when inactive, which would be counted as working time.

Formal talks in Brussels between the European Parliament and EU ministers over the exact implementation of the ruling began last week. The new WTD would have a devastating impact on retained and part-time firefighters, claims the Chief Fire Officers’ Association – who double up their fire work with other jobs.

Many retained firefighters are already on call for up to 120 hours every week over a five-day cycle, as well as pursuing other careers, and could be forced to choose between their day job and attending emergencies.

Critics argue that the 48-hour rule would make it impossible for most retained firemen and women to continue serving communities on top of their full-time occupations.

Most have pagers to be on call in the event of emergencies. Northumberland’s Chief Fire Officer Brian Hesler branded the fresh WTD as a “disaster waiting to happen”, and warned that replacing retained staff with full-time firefighters would hike annual costs from around £10m to over £20m.

“In Northumberland, around 50% of the area is covered by retained firefighters. I see a complete disaster ahead for the delivery of the fire service if these rules do come in,” he said.

“There would be two options if that happened.

“To cease providing emergency service cover in certain areas, which would be unacceptable. Or to replace retained firefighters with full-time officers, again unacceptable because of the financial impact.

“My problem with the proposed Working Time Directive is that there are no exemptions for firefighters or opt-outs, which exist now.

“It’s absolute nonsense that a retained firefighter could soon be considered at work if he or she is sleeping in bed but on call. There must be exemptions for firefighters.” A spokesman for the Chief Fire Officers’ Association said: “We are aware that removal of the ‘opt-out’ clause from the current working time directive will have significant and adverse impact on the ability of Fire and Rescue Services to maintain their current levels of retained firefighters, particularly in rural areas like Northumberland.

“Retained firefighters are used to provide emergency response cover for 91% of the UK’s total land mass and are therefore an essential means by which to protect communities.”

Glyn Morgan, chief executive of the Fire Officers Association, said on the issue: “There is a widespread fear that these EU changes will potentially have an adverse impact on safety and lead to reduced fire cover particularly in remote and rural areas where nearly all the firefighters are retained.”

A spokesman for the Retained Firefighters’ Union said: “If we lost this opt-out then the retained fire service becomes unviable. If people are using up to 48 hours in their primary employment, they haven’t got any hours left to devote to public service.”

The WTD directive is a European Union initiative designed to protect workers from exploitation by employers.

It lays down regulations on matters such as how long employees work, how many breaks they have and how much holiday they are entitled to.

Its central goal is to ensure that no employee in the EU is obliged to work more than an average of 48 hours a week.