FIREFIGHTERS LOOK SET to end up with the lowest pay award in the public sector this year after the government confirmed yesterday (29 July) that it would accept the recommendations of pay review bodies covering teachers, NHS staff, police officers, the armed services, judges, doctors, dentists, prison officers and civil servants.
The outcome is likely to leave Fire Brigades Union (FBU) leaders facing searching questions, with their decision to rush through acceptance of a 4% pay offer three months ago looking like it has badly backfired. It also stands to publicly undermine the leadership’s argument that collective bargaining through the National Joint Council (NJC) is preferable to being sucked into a pay review body because the latter would make it harder for the union to secure decent pay rises (for the avoidance of doubt, this blog strongly supports the principle of collective bargaining).
In parliament yesterday, chancellor Rachel Reeves told MPs that the government had approved the increases proposed by the pay review bodies. This means that teachers and NHS staff stand to receive 5.5%, prison officers and civil servants 5%, armed services personnel, judges, doctors and dentists 6%, and police officers 4.75%. Junior doctors have also been offered 22% to end their long-running industrial dispute.
At the end of April, the FBU leadership recommended that members accept the fire service employers’ offer of 4%. That was the first offer made by the employers in this year’s pay round, and the leadership’s recommendation was made within literally hours of the offer landing. A membership-wide ballot was then arranged at breakneck speed and before the offer had been properly debated through the union’s official structures, including annual conference – the union’s parliament – which, at the time, was just a couple of weeks away.
At the time, this blog was strongly critical of the leadership’s actions. We explained that it was unusual for a trade union to accept a first offer – and certainly to do so without having at least met with the employer and tried to tease out whether there was any room for improvement. And to bypass annual conference when it was just around the corner was inexcusable.
Former assistant general secretary Andy Dark – a veteran of fire service pay negotiations – also publicly questioned the leadership’s haste in recommending the offer, warning on social media (accurately as it turned out) that there was a possibility the pay review bodies would recommend increases above 4% and the offer to firefighters would then look less attractive.
Had the leadership acted with a little more patience, the recommendations of the pay review bodies could have been used as leverage in negotiations. But now that opportunity is gone, and the average firefighter will likely be around £500-600 a year worse off as a result.
FBU members are entitled to expect their leaders to show smart thinking, composure and tactical nous in negotiations with employers. On this occasion we got rashness and disrespect for internal democracy and debate. And the consequence is a pay settlement worse than that received by every other public sector worker.