Scottish firefighters offered 20% pay rise

[TheCountOfNowhere]

Scottish firefighters offered 20% pay rise

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-42879682

 

"Scotland's firefighters are being offered a pay rise of up to 20% if they agree to take on new responsibilities.

It is expected that between 200 and 300 jobs could be cut from the service as part of the deal."

 

F**king madness !!!

 

 

 

 

[regprentice]

'He says the proposed new firefighter role would include emergency medical response and terrorism response.

Firefighters would also be expected to respond to environmental events, wider youth and social prevention work and inspection and enforcement responsibilities'

A lot of that work sound like the kind of stuff my SiL does as a police community support officer (PCSO) in Oxford. Interestingly we don't have PCSOs in scotland but expanding the role of firefighters to cover that kind of community 'policing' role is a left field move. 

Presumably helps keep older staff in jobs while keeping the pensionable age higher. Quite a lot of complaint recently about the pension age for firefighters increasing and whether it's realistic for such a physical job.

[winkie]

That is good is it not.....in days gone by firefighters often worked part time, many took on two jobs......in one hand out the other...... everyone loves the firefighters.......is there still a waiting list to become one?

[thewig]

gonna snap up a shtload of BTLs in Scotland at asking +20%, chuck a load of firefighters in em, save 20% on fire safety checks then just bang the rents up 20%

BOSH

 

[Tulip_mania]

It's a 4 year deal, so ~4.6%/year. Not awful, but slightly different from the headline.

[Bricks n' mortar]

1 hour ago, Tulip_mania said:

It's a 4 year deal, so ~4.6%/year

Fetch my crystal ball.  I want to know the RPI for the next 4 years.

 

[spyguy]

2 hours ago, regprentice said:

'He says the proposed new firefighter role would include emergency medical response and terrorism response.

Firefighters would also be expected to respond to environmental events, wider youth and social prevention work and inspection and enforcement responsibilities'

A lot of that work sound like the kind of stuff my SiL does as a police community support officer (PCSO) in Oxford. Interestingly we don't have PCSOs in scotland but expanding the role of firefighters to cover that kind of community 'policing' role is a left field move. 

Presumably helps keep older staff in jobs while keeping the pensionable age higher. Quite a lot of complaint recently about the pension age for firefighters increasing and whether it's realistic for such a physical job.

That sounds more like trying to find for them to do.

Oven chips and central heating means the reason for 70% of firefighters no longer exists.

The only growing demand - car crashes - would be best served by a dedicated team rather than 15 firefighters in a truck.

Edited January 31, 2018 by spyguy

[spyguy]

Older fire fighters should be doing fire safety and prevention work.

[HowMuch!]

22 minutes ago, spyguy said:

That sounds more like trying to find for them to do.

Oven chips and central heating means the reason for 70% of firefighters no longer exists.

The only growing demand - car crashes - would be best served by a dedicated team rather than 15 firefighters in a truck.

if you look at the local running list of incidents in my regional area most of the call outs are false alarms secondly minor incidents like a cat stuck up a tree.

issue is when there actually is a need you do need the resources, rest of the time its standby costs.

 

[zugzwang]

3 hours ago, thewig said:

gonna snap up a shtload of BTLs in Scotland at asking +20%, chuck a load of firefighters in em, save 20% on fire safety checks then just bang the rents up 20%

BOSH

 

You'll be lucky. All the firemen I know are BTLers themselves.

[chronyx]

3 hours ago, thewig said:

gonna snap up a shtload of BTLs in Scotland at asking +20%, chuck a load of firefighters in em, save 20% on fire safety checks then just bang the rents up 20%

BOSH

 

[HowMuch!]

1 minute ago, zugzwang said:

You'll be lucky. All the firemen I know are BTLers themselves.

what else are they to do?... with the tax of 55% once they have the 1m pension pot.

sure its not a easy job, but there are many more physically demanding jobs where there is no pension so to speak and your working till state pension age at least.

[Bsmf]

1 hour ago, spyguy said:

That sounds more like trying to find for them to do.

Oven chips and central heating means the reason for 70% of firefighters no longer exists.

The only growing demand - car crashes - would be best served by a dedicated team rather than 15 firefighters in a truck.

Cars aren't a growing demand, modern cars are so much safer people are often walking away from crashes that would have been fatal a decade ago.

In England the fire service seems to be reliant upon volunteers outside of the cities.

[fluteroop]

2 hours ago, Bsmf said:

In England the fire service seems to be reliant upon volunteers outside of the cities.

I think reading between the lines here, it looks like running the service is becoming very expensive. If ScotGov think this is a way of ensuring they're getting better value out the firefighters whilst raising their (already good) wages it's a positive thing I think.

A loss of 2-300 firefighters in Scotland seems an awful lot. So many stations have closed over the years/amalgamated. It's possible that has led to too many in each station. Just a sign of the way of things since late 70s/early 80s. Run down public, don't tax supra nationals. Etc 

[Bricks n' mortar]

3 hours ago, spyguy said:

Oven chips and central heating means the reason for 70% of firefighters no longer exists.

This is Scotland.  Home of the deep fat frier.

 

[Agentimmo]

7 hours ago, regprentice said:

'He says the proposed new firefighter role would include emergency medical response and terrorism response.

Firefighters would also be expected to respond to environmental events, wider youth and social prevention work and inspection and enforcement responsibilities'

A lot of that work sound like the kind of stuff my SiL does as a police community support officer (PCSO) in Oxford. Interestingly we don't have PCSOs in scotland but expanding the role of firefighters to cover that kind of community 'policing' role is a left field move. 

Presumably helps keep older staff in jobs while keeping the pensionable age higher. Quite a lot of complaint recently about the pension age for firefighters increasing and whether it's realistic for such a physical job.

This new role and the types of activities they'll be expected to perform in the future will bring the Scottish fireman up to the same standard as a sapeur-pompier in France.  

Edited February 1, 2018 by Agentimmo

[spyguy]

8 hours ago, Bsmf said:

Cars aren't a growing demand, modern cars are so much safer people are often walking away from crashes that would have been fatal a decade ago.

In England the fire service seems to be reliant upon volunteers outside of the cities.

Audis. Asians.

[spyguy]

5 hours ago, Bricks n' mortar said:

This is Scotland.  Home of the deep fat frier.

 

Takeaways

[ccc]

6 hours ago, Bricks n' mortar said:

This is Scotland.  Home of the deep fat frier.

 

Very few people have in their home. 

Most that do will be doing poncy stuff like they've seen Masterchef so unlikely to leave on when inebriated out of their skull.

Falling asleep drunk with a fag in the hand is probably the main cause of fire today up here. 

It's already a very difficult role to get into with hundreds applying for every role. 

Most do stuff on the side due to their shifts and time off. Earn good money then retire at 55 (I think ?) On a nice pension.

It's hardly a role they have trouble filling so don't see the need to throw money at it.

They could reduce the pay* and still have a queue of decent candidates applying to join. 

*Not saying they should just making the point. 

[Bricks n' mortar]

With apologies.  Tongue was in cheek for the 'home of the deep fat frier' comment.

My earlier point about the crystal ball for next 4 years RPI was the main event from me.  It may turn out to be another lower than inflation rise.  It may be the start of governmental reflation policy, (Scotland is often the guinea-pig).

[Craig_]

7 hours ago, Bricks n' mortar said:

This is Scotland.  Home of the deep fat frier.

 

You're thinking of Glasgow, rather than the civilised rest of Scotland.

[Bricks n' mortar]

With apologies.  Tongue was firmly in cheek for 'home of the deep fat frier' comment.

Crystal ball for next 4 year's RPI was the main event from me.  This could be the start of reflationary government policy.  Scotland is often the guinea-pig.

[ccc]

1 hour ago, Bricks n' mortar said:

With apologies.  Tongue was in cheek for the 'home of the deep fat frier' comment.

My earlier point about the crystal ball for next 4 years RPI was the main event from me.  It may turn out to be another lower than inflation rise.  It may be the start of governmental reflation policy, (Scotland is often the guinea-pig).

No apologies required - we do deep fry a lot.

Only yesterday had an English bloke telling me he went to a Chippy up here and ordered a burger and chips - and was shocked when it didn't even come out with a bun. Just a deep fried burger.

[PopGun]

14 hours ago, spyguy said:

That sounds more like trying to find for them to do.

Oven chips and central heating means the reason for 70% of firefighters no longer exists.

The only growing demand - car crashes - would be best served by a dedicated team rather than 15 firefighters in a truck.

So basically you’ve thankfully never needed a fireman, ergo no one else does...

[Option5]

Emergency services and the armed forces are the people we should really be happy to pay to do nothing at all.