This Is Guernsey

By Juliet Pouteaux

States head of human resources Simon Elliott at the airport firefighters tribunal. (Picture by Peter Frankland, 0890501)

CONTROVERSIAL emergency powers were the focus of the second day of the airport firefighters tribunal of inquiry yesterday.

Members of the Emergency Powers Authority were called into a meeting after the airport firefighters took industrial action in May.

But now people involved with that meeting have expressed concern about the powers of the EPA.

Former chairman of the Public Sector Remuneration Committee Al Brouard assumed it was a meeting of the Emergency Powers Authority because of the people who were present.

He said that his committee, which later resigned over the issue, would never have agreed to pay the firefighters £4,000 to go back to work unless they had been forced to do so.

‘If the EPA met in anger, they have total power,’ said Deputy Brouard.

‘But a group of deputies alone have no power. If they had said they were a group of politicians, I would have said “Thank-you very much, but I have the mandate, goodbye”.’

Deputy Brouard said there was now doubt over whether the EPA had been convened, as a state of emergency was not declared. However, there was no going back.

‘We had been usurped,’ he said.

‘We were caught out on a limb and we couldn’t go back and renegotiate. Our authority had been undermined.’

Head of Human resources Simon Elliott started working for the States in early May.

He joined the chief minister when he visited the firemen on 26 May and later attended the possible EPA meeting, which started at 4.30pm.

‘There was no agenda for the meeting, which was chaired by the chief minister,’ he said.

‘There were seven members of the Policy Council, but even now I struggle to say who was sitting [whether it was the EPA].’

Senior negotiator Terry Harnden had been closely involved with the situation.

He said that Deputy Brouard was intentionally left out of the meeting.

‘I heard the meeting was due to start at 4.30pm, and asked if Deputy Brouard needed to be informed. I was told no, he was not to attend until 5.15.’

He believed it had been an EPA meeting.

‘Nobody said it, but it had all the EPA trimmings.’

Article posted on 16th December, 2009 - 2.30pm