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The Chief Fire Officer presented a report seeking agreement from the Fire Authority to start the process of implementing revised emergency cover arrangements at Hereford, Worcester and Bromsgrove Stations, as soon as is practicable, due to the inability to reach a collective agreement with the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) on the existing Day Crewing Plus (DCP) duty system.
Members were advised that this is a similar situation to other Fire Authorities that have introduced comparable duty systems. In addition, because of a recent EU ruling linked to the Working Time Regulations (WTR), there is now a requirement to adjust the Service’s approach to its Day Crewing (DC) Duty System. The implementation of both should take into account recent relevant legal rulings and subsequent legal advice, updated CRMP analysis, original public & staff consultation on 2014 CRMP and requirements for further public & staff consultation based on specific circumstances of the affected communities.
The Head of Legal Services provided Members with a clear legal view of the issues surrounding the existing crewing systems:
- following the ruling in Ville de Nivelles v. Matzak, the on-call element of the DC duty system was no longer enforceable if staff chose not to opt out of the Working Time Regulations (or having opted out, subsequently chose to withdraw that opt-out);
- In relation to DCP, the decision in FBU v. South Yorkshire FRS clarified that all of the time spent on duty at the station was "working time" for the purposes of the WTR. This duty system was therefore in breach of those regulations unless there was a local collective agreement in place (which the FBU had refused to agree);
and confirmed that a plan needed to be put into place promptly to avoid possible prosecution.
The Chief Fire Officer confirmed to Members that the 10-hour day duty system had been negotiated and approved by the Technical Advisory Panel (TAP) but had not been agreed locally by the FBU.
The Chief Fire Officer reminded Members that other more expensive options, such as a return to 2-2-4 shift systems would have to be at the expense of other services provided across the two Counties.
Members discussed the option of deferring a decision until the Fire Authority meeting in June but a motion to that effect was lost.
The Police and Crime Commissioner acknowledged the clear advice from the Chief Fire Officer and the Head of Legal Services and agreed that a decision to move to new duty systems had to be made.
RESOLVED that the Authority would prefer to achieve a negotiated way forward with the trade unions but:
(1) Because of the inability to reach a local agreement with the FBU in respect to the existing DCP duty system, standard crewing arrangements on the full-time appliance at Bromsgrove and the second full-time fire appliances at both Hereford and Worcester stations be changed at the earliest opportunity.
(2) Proportionate public and staff consultation be undertaken in respect to future emergency cover arrangements at Hereford, Worcester and Bromsgrove, including the option to move the existing DCP appliances to a Day-Duty type system in line with the Fire Authority’s original 2014-2020 Community Risk Management Plan (CRMP) recommendation and/or the latest CRMP analysis.
(3) In light of recent Court decisions, staff currently working the Day Crewing duty system be requested to individually opt-out of the Working Time Regulations in respect to the 48 hour working week limit.
(4) If the FBU continues to refuse to enter into a local agreement on a suitable Day-Duty type system, the Service progress with the use of its agreed 7-day Flexible Day Duty system, as well as with its proposed 10-Hour Day Duty system, as the latter has recently been confirmed by the NJC Technical Advisory Panel (TAP) as being both Grey Book and Working Time Regulations (WTR) compliant.
(5) Officers be authorised to secure full implementation of the 10-Hour Day Duty system (or a suitable alternative) into the contracts of all relevant operational personnel by imposition if necessary and/or the use of a dismissal/re-engagement process, as and when required.
[A comfort break was taken at 12:05].