01 November 2002
Negotiations between the Fire Brigades Union and employers were set to go to the wire next week as the two sides attempted to thrash out a deal to avert the first eight-day strike planned for November 8.
Employers were ordered back to the negotiating table this week after Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott intervened and held last-minute talks with the FBU.
Prescott is understood to have indicated that a pay increase above the 4% offer from employers was now a possibility. A three-year deal could also be on the cards.
The FBU is striking over its 39% pay claim, which would take an average firefighter from £21,500 to £30,000 per year. It responded to Prescott's intervention by cancelling its first round of strikes, due to start on October 29, but will begin the first of its eight-day actions on November 6 if the dispute is not resolved.
Employers held talks on October 30 and were due to meet again on October 31 with sources indicating that the negotiations could spill over into next week.
The FBU has maintained that it will only discuss pay, despite the employers' insistence that wage increases must be tied to modernisation.
Professor Sir George Bain, who is leading an independent inquiry into the fire service, this week offered to produce some outline evidence to help the talks. A spokesman for the review told Public Finance that Bain could compile 'chapter headings and themes' from his report, due in December, and has offered to talk through some of the evidence with both sides.
But the FBU has already made it clear that it will not talk to Bain under any circumstances. 'We have said all along that the Bain review is a distraction in this dispute,' said FBU general secretary Andy Gilchrist. 'He will not be attending any talks with the FBU.'
PFnov2002
