Firefighters ‘left out’ of tribunal
Friday 4th December 2009, 11:30AM GMT.
AIRPORT firefighters are yet to be asked to attend the tribunal that will investigate why they went on strike.
The men thought their appearance at the investigation, which starts on Wednesday week, would have been vital, according to a spokesman.
He said they were surprised not to have been requested to appear.
Other key players in the events surrounding the breakdown of pay talks and subsequent strike action in May have received letters asking them to submit a formal statement in preparation to give oral evidence.
‘What happened in May was not a spur-of-the-moment thing, but the culmination of four years of failing to reach an agreement over pay and conditions,’ the spokesman said.
Ron Le Cras (pictured) , regional industrial organiser of the firefighters’ union Unite, has been invited to attend and has said that he will.
But the spokesman said he could not guarantee that firefighters would attend, even if asked.
‘It would be up to the individual,’ he said. ‘We have key men on duty on 14 December and if they were subpoenaed to attend, there would be no overtime cover and a resulting reduction in capacity at the airport.’
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I think this dispute is pathetic! As a tax payer why should I be forking out for these people to be paid more? When they already have state of the art facilities at the airport and rarely have to attend emergencies. The useless government in Guernsey should have never agreed to extra pay to these people and worked out another solution. Why doesn’t the Guernsey Fire Service and the airport fire service combine allowing a shift pattern to work so both services are able to work at both locations. OK, it will involve extra cost in training etc but surely should resolve the problems of overtime etc and would most probably create more support from the general public. Its about time the state of guernsey pulled the heads out the a***s and did something useful for this island!
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I don’t want to get into a debate about pay and whether Airport Firefighters are worth it or not but just to address your point that we have state of the art facilities. That is not exactly true. Two of the Appliances are over twenty years old when they are supposed to be replaced every ten years. About six or seven years ago five GMC vehicles were purchased and converted into rapid response fire appliances at a cost of around £100,000 each. Two of these were for Guernsey and three for Alderney. The two in Guernsey have spent a total of about one year at the most actually operational. The rest of the time they have been broken down and constantly being repaired or modified to try and get them to work properly and comply with health and safety requirements. The majority of the time they pack up in the middle a training drill and stop pumping. Not really state of the art or reliable in the very unlikely event of being inside a burning aircraft. I am not saying we should have state of the art equipment because as you point out the likelihood of using it in anger is thankfully very small but just some equipment that we can rely on would be a bonus. Luckily at the moment the two GMC appliances are still off the run so we don’t have to worry about using them.
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Hey SM!
I understand everything you have said but give me one good reason why you lot can’t form a company and tender for providing a better airport fire service to the States of Guernsey??????
We’ll get an improved level of cover with no strikes and you’ll get more money in your pay packet each month.
It’s been said repeatedly, not just by me but by others both on thisisguernsey and in the real world.
The only thing stopping it is that the firemen /people/ women/ persons……. (I’ve been told off before by you for being misogynistic so am nervous about saying what you ‘guys’ think is politically incorrect.) – anyway……..
The only thing that will stop YOU is a sense of risk and responsibility, it should be mutuality beneficial.
Or do YOU want to continue to suck money out of Guernsey’s economy by YOU and YOUR union playing the hard done by victims?????
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MrsPinthepantry
The Airport fire Service provides the best service possible with the equipment available. I wasn’t complaining merely pointing out that nothing we have is state of the art. I won’t be the one on the spot trying to answer questions when somebody loses their life due to dodgy pumps failing when I (and the rest of the service) have pointed out the inadequacies and pointed out the fact they are unsafe and a liability. My conscience will be clear.
You seem to be clutching at straws now, to find reasons to have a go.
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