‘Whole island will pay for airport action’
Monday 1st June 2009, 11:30AM BST.
GUERNSEY will pay dearly for Chief Minister Lyndon Trott’s intervention in the airport firefighter dispute, according to Public Sector Remuneration Committee chairman Al Brouard.
Deputy Brouard (pictured) said there had been no need for it and that arbitration was the way forward.
The firefighters went on strike last Monday, bringing the airport to a standstill, and on Tuesday Deputy Trott and the Emergency Powers Authority pushed aside the States pay body and got Public Services to agree a deal directly with the airport fire service.
That included a £4,000 ‘recruitment and retention’ payment, made over 12 months, for each firefighter.
‘I believe that the whole community is pleased that the airport is running,’ he said. ‘But although severe disruption was being caused, there was no declared emergency. The island community will pay heavily in the future for this unconstitutional interference.
‘I wonder what level of public support the firemen would have got had they decided to argue the legally-binding power of the industrial disputes tribunal.’
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It is ridiculous that at a time when most people are considering themselves lucky to have jobs the airport firefighters have used their positions to increase their salaries. They knew their pay and conditions when they took the jobs!
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True, but look at the staff turnover rates – plenty of the ff left employment altogether at a far greater cost to the tax payer. I think you’ll find that the employment situation really isn’t so terrible at the moment and employees are still in a very strong bartering position – either with their present employers, or in looking for new jobs. As so many past airport firefighters have done.
Seriously, wold you rather the entire complement of firefighters had quit en masse?
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No need to intervene? The airport was closed due to a firefighter’s strike. What exactly should have been done? Leave the island’s lifeline closed until they negotiated a deal that should have been done months ago?
Deputy Brouard is very nicely passing the buck rather than taking responsibility for the inaction of his department. If this is his normal style of leadership no wonder nothing got done! Instead of blaming CM Trott perhaps he should look a bit closer to home. If his department had done its job properly rather than dilly dally around for months then CM Trott would have had no cause to intervene.
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States members have now opened up new opportunities for employment within the taxpayers funded employment.
Blackmailers at the airport and convicted criminals in the police force.
Our states membership are showing the same level of common sense as the socialists in London and Brussels!
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My sympathies lie with the unfortunate people trying to travel in and out of the island last week and those working in the holiday industry on the island who will lose out on business not just last week but long term. They most definitely do not lie with the Airport firefighters whose action last week was deplorable
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Well said Paul.
Heather, you say the firemen knew their pay etc so does this mean you never expect [or accept] a pay rise in your job as you knew your salary when commencing it?
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Having had months to sort this out and achieved nothing, I really don’t see how Al Brouard can complain.
It does however, get his department off the hook if he can blame the Chief Minister.
The fact is that the dispute should have been settled months ago, it wasn’t and it erupted into total closure of the airport.
I think Mr Brouard should take responsibility for the failure of his negotiating team.
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Debbie makes a good point, the firefighters and most particuarly Ron Le Cras and the union he represents have a lot to answer for in this fiasco however I cannot help but think that a stronger and more proactive PSRC would have got this situation resolved months ago. After all if I read the reports correctly we shouldn’t forget that CM Trott’s intervention has only bought some more time – another 12 months to be precise. That should be plenty enough time to get a permenant solution in place as well as sort the mess out with the current system.
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Rachael, It’s not a matter of a simple pay rise but it was a lot more than most people are getting at this difficult time.
And this will probably affect many people, for instance locals who had holidays spoilt and tourists who have been inconvenienced. In this time of recession we are all affected and their action will probably increase air fares which will affect many people.
I also agree that it is something that should have been sorted out before it came to this.
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Iam glad I will not be paying er ed!!
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There are always 2 sides to a story and i look forward to the public report on what happened.
The important thing is that the island needs to realise that, thanks to the emergency powers committee actually getting up to the airport and talking face to face with the ff, the airport re-opened within 3 hours. OK, it cost them but what would have been the cost of training another 30 ff if they had sacked the present ones? I feel sorry for the folks who lost their holidays or business trips etc or who had incurred extra expenses taking alternative routes or re-booking.
Listening to the head of the Civil Service union today it was obvious that the PSRC were well past their sell by date and hopefully a new modernised negotiating body will do the job successfully.
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As the whole fiasco is largely down to the unwillingness/inability of the PSRC to enter into negotiation by collective bargaining I don’t really see how Al Brouard can blame anyone but his own committee. The States need to start employing people who know what they are doing when it comes to negotiating, and actually carry out their mandate.
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The firefighters timed their Bank Holiday strike so that the steamer would have left and people would be stranded. I flew to Guernsey for the bank holiday weekend to see my husband who is working on the island. I was fortunate in that my flight got away but I felt so sorry for all those poor people who were left high and dry. The strike didn’t affect those who hold the purse strings anyway. The tragedy is that now I dare not take risk of coming over to see my husband and must stay apart from him. Not that the firefighters will care a jot. It will just give them a power trip. They say the strike is over. I don’t believe them. Once the trust has gone it has gone. And don’t come the line if your plane crashes you’ll be glad of fire fighters. What are a bunch of uncommitted greedy idiots going to do against burning aircraft fuel and a broken plane. Not a lot. My daughter is a nurse. She earns less than this lot. She doesn’t strike because she is a decent human being who doesn’t leave people to die. Personally I’d prefer to take my chances without the fire fighters thank you.
one unhappy lady
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Glynis: The action by the CM has actually meant that the airport is guaranteed to stay open for another 12 months (barring fog which no one can do anything about and is part of island life). There is no reason why you should not visit your husband!
What is important now is that those who have responsibility for the pay, terms and conditions of the airport ff make sure that there is a no-strike clause in their new agreement – although this will not force them to work overtime if they are short of staff. The purse strings are being tightened but there is a need to build bridges and then take the positive actions forward and learn from past mistakes.
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Merlin
It’s really nice of you to try and reassure me and I do appreciate your gesture. Yes I understand that fog is part of an island way of life which is why I checked weather forecasts and did not book to fly to Guernsey until the last minute. However I am working on a lottery funded project with very strict deadlines and I cannot afford to miss work for two or three days here and there. I do not understand how the CM action ‘can guarantee the airport to stay open for another twelve months’. The fire fighters have ignored everyone and everything else else for three years. There is nothing, absolutely nothing, to guarantee commitment from a group of people who have shown themselves to be greedy, selfish, uncaring and unprofessional in their approach to matters so far. This is why I cannot see my lovely husband.
one very unhappy lady
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I’m still waiting to ‘pay for airport action’. Al Brouard said I would be, dearly. So did Hunter Adam. My chequebook is open and my betting shop biro primed.
“Dear States of Guernsey Hyperbole Division,
Please find enclosed my predicted payment for actions taken to keep the airport open. Please also refer to ‘martini’ in another thread on teh interweb that suggests you sack all the firefighters and re-employ them as private firefighting consultants. The whole world knows without doubt that hiring in profit-driven private enterprise to run essential infrastructure services is great value for money and doesn’t result in substandard cowboys ripping everyone off. No, sir.
Won’t someone please think of the children?
Yours faithfully
Bingo-Jane.”
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I believe (if the media reports are correct) that the recruitment and retention payment has been given on the understanding that the airport will stay fully manned for the next 12 months and the ff have agreed that they will work overtime to cover shifts that are short for whatever reason. What now has to be worked on is how the ensure that this continues: probably by employing a couple more firemen to cover annual leave and training etc.
Glynis : Don’t ruin your marriage due to the very minute possibility that there will be a bit of fog (it rarely lasts all day anyway). Let your love bloom in this beautiful island …
Come on over – the summer really is beautiful.
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Merlin, you may also recall that we paid the firefighters money in February to continue working and talking, and if that failed to go to arbitration.
Which they refused to go to, because the agreement hadn’t been signed by the correct people apparently ……. strange that they didn’t bother to check this until the end of the agreement period and just before both the tribunal and a busy bank holiday weekend …
Has anyone checked that the correct, duly authorised people have signed this latest agreement ?
Have the firefighters given back, or has the States witheld, the money paid to them as part of an agreement that wasn’t apparently binding or valid ( and which they are therefore not entitled to )?
Pardon me if I don’t entirely trust them to honour the latest agreement if it becomes inconvenient ……..
They may well be the hardest working, most trustworthy and woefully underpaid and understaffed fire service on the planet – but if that is the case then they have the worst PR representatives in history because all I see is a bunch of greedy arrogant selfish b******s willing to inflict misery and suffering on an innocent public in order to blackmail their employers in giving them money.
As an aside, it seems that when anyone says anything harsh, negative and untrue about them, the firefighters will vigourously deny it and set you straight.
If anyone says anything harsh, negative but accurate the silence is defeaning ….
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I don’t know what the truth is – that will come out in the public review.
All i do know is that the ff i know are not shallow selfish people but they have been working on goodwill for over 3 years – and the fact that the PSRC knew their agreement was coming to an end but did nothing earlier to come to a compromise is surely indicative of why the ff took the action they did.
I do not believe in striking at all – and hopefully the new agreement will have a no strike clause. They have guaranteed 12 months of cover by agreeing to cover shortfalls in staffing while whoever is doing the negotiating does their job. As others have said before though: they could have brought the airport to a standstill many many times by refusing to work overtime and then their shifts would have been short and then only the small planes could have flown. This agreement is not a solution: the ff do not want to continue to work overtime – they want enough staff to cover the shifts: lets hope that things are sorted to the benefit of all.
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Merlin, I thank you for your kind words, whoever you are? Glyinis, Toby and Bingo Jane, i listen to what you are saying but hey guys, lets think about this serious, your plane crashes on approach, or on take off, (check out the recent emergency exercise). I do not have to let you know then the importance of the airport fire service! Is it really the firefighters that have ignored it for three years. No defo not. Hey Tobes you really do not know what your on about do you?
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Hey, Yes Boss.
I’m on your side. Sarcasm doesn’t always work in text.
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Hi Yes Boss I am thinking seriously about this, being nervous on take-off and touch-down.
Let us assume that
1)the fire fighters are not on strike
2)they manage to reach a crashed plane without turning the fire engine on its side
3)the ‘practice’ training does actually kick in
but no one has yet explained to me in words of one syllable what effective use the fire fighters would be in a real-life emergency against burning/exploding aircraft fuel and a broken plane.
What can anyone do if they are caught up in a holocaust?
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Firefighting is a dangerous, necessary, proud and noble profession, which should command our respect. That respect, from me and many others, has sadly been lost by the firefighters’ “perceived” actions of late.
The reason I perceive them as greedy is that they go back to work everytime we give them more money !!!! What else am I supposed to think ? Three times in the past year or so thay have been given more money, with no guarantee of any change in working conditions, and three times they have gone back to work as normal. If the problem is only the horrendous conditions, working all your days off, no free time with your family, then no amount of money should be adequate compensation. And as for a lack of free time, given that they are all “apparently” working many of their days off, how on earth do they hold down the second jobs that a spokesman was so angry that Deputy Maindonald criticised them over ?
As for the February agreement, it has been publicly stated that it was not binding or valid due to it not having the correct signatories. Given that this made the agreement invalid and non binding, was the payment witheld by the States? Or if already paid, was it handed back by the firefighters ? And is it really true that nobobdy, on either side, noticed the agreement wasn’t correctly signed until after it had expired ?
Why not go to arbitration? For all we know all the firefighters’ demands may have been upheld. Then again perhaps they feared they wouldn’t ….. And if arbitration was never going to be the answer why sign up to an agreement which included it as a last resort ? Oh that’s right, the correct people didn’t actually sign up to it did they, see the paragraph above ….
Yes Boss, can you point out where I am wrong exactly ? My comments are based on the facts available to me through the media. If I really don’t know what I’m talking about please point out to me where I have gone wrong and I will gladly acknowledge my mistakes.
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Toby
Your comments about the firefighters not abiding by thier February agreement because it was not correctly signed raises an intruiging point.
As there is substantial doubt as to the correctness of the advice that led to the most recent payment, as well as a feeling that the PSB did not have authority to make a deal with the firefighters, do these facts mean the firefighters can / might/ will treat this latest agreement as not binding on them?
Glynis
Travelling by air is safer than travelling by car or rail.
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Isn’t taking off and landing the most dangerous part of flying???
I hate flying – but it is a necessary evil at times. I would like to know that should a plane crash on take off or landing that the ff would get there within minutes and the survivors of the initial crash would have the best chance of surviving if any fire was put out quickly. The latest exercise showed how both fire brigades worked together but the airport ff got there first and put the fire out and started to treat the ‘casualties’ while awaiting the arrival of the town fire brigade and the ambulance services. Of course these exercises are not real but they do prove that there is a workable plan should the unthinkable happen. I think all emergency workers should be paid fairly – along with all the other emergency services. They should all be on the same pay scale. Perhaps the new negotiators will sort something out.
Perhaps someone with the answers will print the salaries of the various emergency services: without harping on about basic pay and shift pay. Tell us the basic and tell us what difference shift pay makes – most of them have it inbuilt i think but the biggest difference between the airport is that they are not manned at night and they have to therefore be on ‘unofficial’ call = should they be needed for emergency flights and/or air sea rescue. No one is on here saying that the town ff are paid to sleep in a bed nearly every night – because they know that should they be needed they will be on scene in minutes. That is priceless!
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Glynis, i will answer your worries as best i can going from 3 to 1.
Q.3 The practice training will kick in as those guys are extremely professional in their role. You only see what you see in the paper or on television when it comes to training/exercises. The airport fire crews are out almost every morning around 6 am before the red eyes practising for what we the travelling public will hope will never happen.
Q.2 Unfortunately a bit of sarcasm there Glynis, however does this not address the need for a category C license with experience i hasten to add which i believe is one of their arguments that they are not getting the appropriately qualified/experienced drivers applying?
Q.1 Easy this one Glynis, your flight would not be taking off or touching down if the firefighters were on strike as there would be no fire cover simple as.
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