Tribunal awards Town firefighters 4.5% rise

Saturday 19th March 2011, 2:30PM GMT.

Fire chief Nigel Acton, left, and his deputy, Jon Le Page, arrive at Les Cotils for the tribunal. (Picture by Tom Tardif, 1110828)

TOWN firefighters have won a 4.5% pay increase at an industrial tribunal.

And the panel accepted the principle that Town firefighters’ pay should be on a par with airport firefighters, paving the way for another large pay rise at this year’s negotiations.

The decision means Town officers will receive a pay rise 3% higher than other public servants under the Home Department’s remit, including police and prison officers, for the period covering 1 July 2010 to 30 June this year.

But it was still far below the rise firefighters were demanding. They were seeking 7.2% more than the airport firefighters are paid – a near 19% rise.

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1
Paul

March 19, 2011 at 3:16 pm

Next it will be the turn of the nurses & the story will continue across the board.

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2
blogger

March 19, 2011 at 11:36 pm

Why should they get a 4.5% pay rise? They do a run of the mill job with the odd fire or rta thrown in. They have to be well trained to do their job but so do many other people so can we all have a 4.5% pay rise please.

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3
JDR

March 20, 2011 at 9:27 am

@paul and so the nurses should get paid more, cannot think of a group who are more entitled to more pay tbh, unfortunately they have a responsibility of care to their patients, which morally makes it difficult for them to take action for more pay, but should they ever get fed up and go on strike im sure the magic cheque book would be out again to get them back to work as per the Aiport fiasco.

as for the topic (lets get back on it) it was fairly dumb of the states to even suggest the airport wage deal would carry no repercussions across the other pay groups, the fact they got away with it with some of them is good for them, they didnt win this one though!

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4
Paul

March 20, 2011 at 4:03 pm

JDR

The point I made was the dangerous precedent set by the AFFs sweet deal. Many positions are as valid & well trained. In lots of cases much more so.

The whole spectrum will be left feeling aggrieved by the special treatment shown & will want to be included into the pot of gold.

All those that have the backing of a union will be asking questions.

The AFFs are no doubt very happy. Now the Town FFs are smiling. Many more have every right to want the same recognition.

How much will it end up costing the economy at the end of negotiations is the big question?

It would have been a lot wiser to make all those unhappy reapply for their jobs. The odd one or two may have left. No doubt there would have been retained FFs only too happy to step up to the opportunity.

I can see both sides of the argument. I bet either department would be well attended if they needed to recruit more staff now.

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5
al

March 20, 2011 at 4:45 pm

finally there is realisation that there are repercussions for the gung ho way the airport firefighters were treated. this irresponsible approach is now coming to light with the latest arbitration where 4.5% was awarded to town firefighters with a recommendation that the anomaly between the two groups should be eroded over time.
people are asking why should they get this, simply because a precedent was set by the award to airport firefighters and previous contributors are absolutely right other groups should jump on the band wagon and accept they have a case.
This was always going to be the case and I hope those responsible for the airport firefighters deal will now let us the public who are paying for all this know how they justify their actions and how are they going to stem the flow of other claims, I am sure they thought about this.

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6
Stephen John

March 21, 2011 at 11:37 am

The result of this Tribunal makes the idiotic claim of the States HR man that the firefiighter award of last year was not remuneration, even more idiotic.

Almost all posters here following the payments of last years settlemtn realised that those who made the agreement were storing problems for the future. It seems the only people unaware of this were the negotiators.

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7
Paul

March 21, 2011 at 5:47 pm

I wonder if Trott is going to be on the island to deal with this issue at the eleventh hour?

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