27th March 2009

Dear Sir,

NOTICE OF BALLOT UNDER SECTION 226A OF THE TRADE UNION AND LABOUR RELATIONS (CONSOLIDATION) ACT 1992

This Union intends to hold a ballot in relation to the trade dispute concerning the failure to fill vacancies, imposition of a service transfer policy and non-compliance with nationally agreed pay scales, CPD arrangements, and consultation/negotiation procedures.

This Union reasonably believes that the opening day of the ballot will be 3rd April 2009.

The employees of the Authority who it is reasonable for the Union to believe will be entitled to vote are all those wholetime members of this Union employed by the Authority up to and including Watch Manager/Watch Manager (Control). For these purposes please note that a member who is temporarily promoted to a higher role than this will be treated as if he/she is in that higher role only if before the opening day of the ballot that member has both received confirmation that the temporary promotion will continue after 31st July 2009 and has informed the FBU Humberside Brigade Membership Secretary of this.

Please note all of these members are employees from whose wages the Authority as employer makes deductions representing payments to the Union. Accordingly, this information as to the employees concerned will enable the Authority readily to deduce the number, category and workplace of such employees including the numbers in each category and at each workplace.

A sample of the form of voting paper is also enclosed.

Yours faithfully,

MATT WRACK
GENERAL SECRETARY

Please see below the formal trade dispute letter sent to Humberside Fire Authority on the 19th March 2009

Mr.Robin Graham
Secretary to the Humberside Fire & Rescue Authority
Humberside Fire & Rescue Service
Service H.Q. Summergroves Way
Kingston upon Hull
HU4 7BB

BY FAX – 01482 508635

19th March 2009

Dear Sir,

TRADE DISPUTE: FAILURE TO FILL VACANCIES, IMPOSITION OF A SERVICE TRANSFER POLICY AND NON-COMPLIANCE WITH NATIONALLY AGREED PAY SCALES, CPD ARRANGEMENTS, AND CONSULTATION/NEGOTIATION PROCEDURES

I refer to the dictatorial management by the Fire Authority resulting in the failure to fill vacancies, the imposition of a service transfer policy and the non-compliance with nationally agreed pay scales and CPD arrangements, combined with persistent failures to comply with the consultation and negotiation procedures in the Grey Book and in the nationally agreed Industrial Relations Protocol.

The Authority has not accepted the need to reach agreement where disputes arise. Where consultation is required, it has paid lip service to the need to consult with a view to reaching agreement and has simply proceeded to imposition where there is no agreement. Where negotiation is required, the Authority has simply re-classified the matter as for consultation only and then pressed ahead without the need for agreement. Where failures to agree arise, these have not prevented imposition and the Authority has repeatedly refused to accept referrals to the National Joint Secretaries to resolve such disputes amicably. This has frustrated the nationally agreed process.

The result is that the Authority has sought to simply bypass national agreements and force its own agenda on FBU members without their consent. For example:

o Failure to fill vacancies

The Grey Book is clear that: Pre-arranged overtime will not be used to make up any planned shortfall in the overall staffing levels set out in the fire and rescue authority’s Integrated Risk Management Plan.

In spite of this, the Fire Authority has relied on overtime to cover for the unfilled vacancies. The Assistant Chief Officer claimed last December that the vacancies had arisen due to an increase in the number of unexpected retirements whilst conceding that there was a need to address establishment shortfalls without further delay. He indicated this would be addressed in the early part of 2009. But it is now well into 2009 and shortfalls remain.

Despite a collective dispute being lodged by the FBU under the Grey Book in January 2009, the matter is not resolved and overtime is still being used to fill the gap.

o Imposition of a service transfer policy

The proposed transfer policy concerning transfer from retained to wholetime duties and internal wholetime transfers were clearly a matter for negotiation. In spite of this, the Fire Authority have classified it as a matter for consultation, and issued a policy which was not agreed and which unfairly treated a number of FBU Humberside members. This was done before the end of the timescale laid down by the Chief Fire Officer for discussions.

On 10th December 2008, a collective dispute was lodged by the FBU under the Grey Book on behalf of FBU Humberside members. By 21st December this had not been resolved and a meeting was requested. It was made clear that if the Chief Fire Officer on behalf of the Fire Authority considered that all avenues had been exhausted, the matter should be referred to the National Joint Secretaries under the nationally agreed procedure.

The Fire Authority clearly did consider that all avenues had been exhausted as they continued to implement policy imposed. But they have blocked the attempt to resolve the matter under the national procedure by failing to agree to referral of the dispute to the National Joint Secretaries. No good reason has been given for this obstructive conduct.

o Non-compliance with nationally agreed pay scales

In February 2009, the Chief Fire Officer confirmed that the Fire Authority would be advertising Community Fire Technician posts claiming that this was in response to requests from firefighters who would like this work on their rota days. Clearly, firefighters who, on their rota days carry out duties within their role maps, are working overtime. Instead of honouring the nationally agreed overtime pay rates, the Fire Authority is seeking to bypass them by the artificial device of re-classifying overtime as work under a separate contract. The Assistant Chief Fire Officer confirmed that the payment would be made at the rates of the smoke alarm fitters, so this overtime will not even be paid basic firefighter rates.

This is unacceptable. It is a device which breaches and undermines nationally agreed overtime rates. It is selective in that this form of overtime is then only available to those prepared to work outside the national Grey Book pay scales, penalising members who seek to uphold those rates. The Fire Authority should accept that agreed overtime pay is due where overtime is worked, and not try clever devices to avoid doing so.

And again the Fire Authority has classified this as consultation, brushed aside FBU objections on behalf of Humberside members, and ended consultation by simply confirming that the initiative will proceed without agreement.

o CPD Payments

In breach of the national agreement on Continuous Professional Development, the Fire Authority has sought to misuse CPD as a means to achieve other objectives such as penalising members who have suffered injury and sickness without providing the required notice and applying an additional punishment to members subjected to discipline.

This is wholly wrong. The National Agreement is clear that CPD is about professional development, experience and knowledge. There is no suggestion that Fire Authorities can use CPD for other means such as to punish twice, members already subjected to discipline.

In addition, the 2008 applications mostly concerned members in receipt of CPD in respect of which there has been a failure to comply with the fundamental requirement that members be given adequate advance notice of CPD concerns in order to rectify those before the renewal date. This includes concerns as to absence levels due to injury and sickness. The Agreement provides:

Where, under any formal management procedures…, concerns are identified with respect to the maintenance of this continual professional development by an employee in receipt of the payment, managers will inform the applicant in good time and provide opportunity for those concerns to be rectified prior to the renewal date.

Once again, national agreements have been ignored and once again the dispute procedure was frustrated when the Chief Fire Officer refused the request to refer the matter to be resolved by the National Joint Secretaries. The initial reason given was the lodging of Employment Tribunal claims by members wrongly refused CPD payments. When it was pointed out that this was required due to time limits and that the cases could be suspended to allow the National Joint Secretaries to resolve the matter, it was claimed that this was only one reason. A quite extraordinary point was then put forward as the main reason – that the Chief Fire Officer did not consider the dispute was substantial enough to be referred for resolution under the National Agreement.

o Consultation/negotiation procedures

CPD is a further example where the Fire Authority has found a reason to bypass the procedure designed to avoid disputes. It now appears to consider that it can decide what is substantial enough to be referred for dispute resolution. On transfers they similarly refused the referral and gave no good reason for this obstructive conduct.

On vacancies, despite the FBU lodging a collective dispute, establishment shortfalls remain and overtime is still being used to fill the gap. In relation to overtime rates the Fire Authority simply classified this as consultation, brushed aside FBU objections and ended consultation so as to press ahead with the proposals.

This is dictatorial management which is not acceptable to our Humberside members who therefore require assurances as follows:

1 Confirmation that all vacancies have been filled and that a comprehensive recruitment strategy will now be delivered to include transfers from other Authorities and to ensure that there is adequate advance planning so that the unacceptable levels of vacancies that arose in 2008 will not be repeated.

2 The immediate withdrawal of the service transfer policy and no reintroduction of such a policy until it has been agreed in full with the FBU.

3 The immediate withdrawal of the Community Fire Technician posts and agreement that members conducting such duties on rota days or otherwise in addition to their contractual hours of duty shall be paid overtime in accordance with the Grey Book.

4 The immediate payment of CPD to all applicants refused in 2008 and, pending agreement of a new procedure with FBU Humberside, payment of CPD to all personnel permitted to apply as provided by the National Agreement.

5 Acceptance that the Fire Authority wrongly refused the requests to refer the CPD and transfer policy disputes to the National Joint Secretaries and wrongly proceeded without agreement on vacancies and on the Community Fire Technician posts. An undertaking to agree all requests for referral to Joint Secretaries until agreement has been reached with FBU Humberside on a new Industrial Relations Protocol to resolve collective disputes.

Until all five assurances outlined above are confirmed, a trade dispute exists between the FBU members in Humberside and the Authority. This dispute plainly relates to the terms and conditions of employment and/or working conditions of FBU members employed by the Fire Authority. Further, questions as to the duties of employment of FBU members arise as does the machinery for negotiation or consultation and other procedures relating to these matters.

This dispute will be resolved if the Authority unconditionally confirms all five points specified in the terms set out.

I await this by 26th March 2009, failing which; I will commence a ballot of Humberside members as appropriate for industrial action under the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992.

Yours faithfully,

MATT WRACK
General Secretary
FIRE BRIGADES UNION

HFRS have made an entry in the latest ‘Need to Know’ document that gives the views of the management of HFRS in relationship to the current Industrial Relations.
The FBU feel it is appropriate that they respond to some of the contents of this article in order for members to make their own judgements regarding the current state of industrial relations within HFRS and then they can then ‘search their own conscience’ to decide if they support the FBU in trying to best represent their interests and fight to retain their conditions of service.
The FBU ARE FULLY committed to the NJC’s Joint Protocol for Good Industrial Relations and we can also declare that we also fully support its first principle ‘Joint Commitment to the Success of the Organisation’ That being said the joint protocol when it relates to ‘the commitment to the success of the organisation’ is just not the commitment to the success applicable from the MANAGEMENT side. Employees have a stake and an interest in the success of the organisation that does not just mean hitting and achieving efficiency savings, CFS targets, new partnerships that are demanded from Auditors, government and politicians. The success of the organisation can also mean having good Industrial Relations, having good employee reward / benefit schemes, having a duty system that employees find are family friendly and ultimately believing that employees have some worth within the organisation rather then feeling that they are always under scrutiny to achieve more efficient ways of carrying out their duties.
The article reports that YOUR efforts have been rewarded with an Audit Commission judgement on service delivery that HFRS is performing strongly. So why do CMT feel the need to change their relationship with the FBU? Is it all about being on top of the league in comparison to other FRS’s, is it all about being able to say to the auditors ‘look at us, we’ve achieved efficiency savings, it doesn’t matter that a massive section of the workforce are worse off now and are not happy’
We believe the CFO should survey his staff to see how happy they are with the current direction of HFRS and their ‘new’ working relationship with the FBU. See if FBU members are happy that their elected representatives are now having no meaningful input into the daily business of HFRS.
The CFO mentions a joint development meeting where they ‘outlined the changes they hoped to make in the future’ to the FBU. It then adds the FBU could not support any of those changes. These changes involved – Changes to Duty Systems, Co-Responding, Cold calling etc etc. These are issues that our members are telling us as their officials they do not want. The FBU Officials would quite rightly be quickly removed from their elected positions if they then went against their members’ wishes and supported the changes the CFO and his team want to implement.
Currently the FBU have 5 disputes lodged with the CFO these are;
• The imposition of a Transfer Policy
• The payment of CPD outside of the NJC agreed application process
• The current number of firefighter vacancies
• The disregard of the IR Protocol
• Community Fire Technicians - paying outside of the NJC agreed rates of pay.The IR Protocol states that; Where agreement cannot be reached both parties will consider further options but in doing so commit to taking unilateral action only as a means of last resort i.e. industrial action or imposition of change
The FBU have requested and sought the involvement of the National Joint Secretaries (their involvement has to be jointly referred by both sides) to resolve these differences, however this request has been continuingly refused by HFRS. Why? What do they fear from their side of the National Joint Council scrutinising their ‘new’ relationship with the FBU and how they are operating?
The FBU have been forced into progressing this issue now to a formal Trade Dispute with the Fire Authority, this is not the position the FBU wanted. The FBU want full and meaningful consultation and negotiation to take place on changes that affect their members on a daily basis. This was the position that used to be in place, before the Corporate Management Team decided that it’s ‘the FBU’s fault’ for the service not progressing at a rate of change that they would like.
Let your ‘conscience’ decide who you support, the FBU who are fighting a constant battle to maintain YOUR existing conditions of service or a management team that want to introduce change at a rate knots either with or without the FBU’s involvement or agreement. Remember YOU are the FBU.
Recent Letter from the FBU
Please remember to respond to the recent letter from the FBU. It is imperative our database is up to date and as accurate as is possible. If you have not received your letter please contact Ashley.oldfield@fbu.org.uk and have your FBU membership details checked against current records.
Over the next few weeks branch meetings will be taking place. Please attend your meeting for the latest up to date information on the trade dispute. If your workplace has not yet had its meeting arranged email Ashley Oldfield on the email address above to arrange one.

As members will now be aware, Humberside FBU have been consulting with the membership regarding the current state of Industrial relations within HFRS and what steps can be taken to resolve this situation whereby the NJC Industrial Relations Protocol is being totally disregarded by the management of HFRS.
The FBU are currently in the process of progressing with a formal trade dispute being lodged with the Fire Authority and as part of that process and any subsequent ballots that would take place, the FBU’s membership database must be up to date and accurate.
Humberside FBU members will shortly receive a letter requesting
1. Acknowledgement of the letter
2. the Role you currently occupy in your substantive post
3. The details if you are in a Temporary Role and expected finish date of that role
Please respond to this request in order that we can establish that the details we hold for FBU members are as up to date as is possible.
Please respond as soon as possible and also ask around your place of work if other FBU members have received their letter.
Any member who has not received this letter over the next few days from the FBU, should immediately contact Ashley Oldfield on Ashley.oldfield@fbu.org.uk
Humberside FBU members have made it clear to local FBU Officials that it is NOT acceptable for their conditions of service as well as their representative body to be disregarded when it comes to making changes within HFRS.
The Brigade Committee have been forced to hold two Emergency meetings to discuss this situation over recent months and as a result requested permission from the FBU’s Executive Council to ballot for Industrial action. This request was granted.
Please attend your Branch meeting that will be taking place imminently to find out exactly what the latest position is and to raise any issues or questions that you may have.
Humberside FBU would like to reiterate to their members, that as with any local Industrial Action, the membership will play a vital role in any decisions that will be taken in the future and therefore should respond to the letter and attend their next FBU meeting.