Talks are pencilled in for the New Year to thrash out an agreement over the pay of on-call firefighters.

Devon & Somerset Fire & Rescue Service offers a system called Pay for Availability (P4A) for on-call firefighters, and it had been trying to get all its fire stations to agree to use this method.

Around six fire stations were understood to be unsure about moving to it, but just as they were on the verge of agreeing to sign up, the fire service realised it needed to change the terms of the P4A arrangement.

That has prompted a new set of negotiations with fire unions in a bid to try and secure a collective agreement for all of Devon and Somerset’s on-call firefighters.

Andrew Furbear, the fire service’s finance chief, told the Devon & Somerset Fire & Rescue Authority (Tuesday 16 December), which oversees the service, that negotiations were still ongoing and that the service was keen to have one system for paying on-call staff.

Christian Grantham, an acting brigade secretary for the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) in Devon and Somerset, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service after the meeting that the union was waiting for a date for negotiations to begin, but expected it to be in January.

“There is no hard information yet about what it is exactly the fire service wants to do, but we absolutely want to include all stations in negotiations and will enter the talks for all members,” he said.

“We want what’s right for our members and will be ensuring it is in line with our Grey Book and rules – that’s what we will base the negotiations on.”

Mr Grantham said the FBU would consult with its members once it had discussed the proposed changes with the fire service, and make a decision based on member feedback.

Gerald Taylor, the assistant chief fire officer, told the fire authority members the history of how the service paid its staff had a complicated history.

“It is complex, because when P4A was introduced, the service tried to negotiate a collective agreement, and even took the matter to arbitration in 2019, but the Fire Brigades Union chose not to agree P4A as a collective deal with Devon & Somerset in spite of it being more favourable.

“The service took the decision to introduce P4A to our on-call staff as we thought they deserved a better package, and so we decided to do it through voluntary agreement, meaning we had to go to every fire station and every firefighter to discuss the move to revised terms and conditions voluntarily.”

Mr Taylor added that this meant all firefighters at each individual station had to agree to move to P4A before that station could use those terms, and that there had been six that had not agreed to the move.

“There were a small number of firefighters at those stations, mainly FBU members, who believed they could only agree to something if it had been agreed through the union, so they chose not to go on to P4A, meaning they are on other terms,” he said.

But Mr Taylor said as those station realised others were accepting the P4A terms, the service realised it had to make changes to the scheme due to potential affordability issues for the fire service.

This means efforts will now be underway to agree new P4A terms for all stations – with the aim being to secure a collective agreement.

Under P4A, on-call firefighters are paid by the hour for each hour they commit to be available. Depending on their personal circumstances, individuals can choose to be available for anywhere between 30 and 120 hours a week. The fire service states this provides a “great deal of flexibility on the hours firefighters need to commit to and gives them a better work-life balance”.

Under the scheme, a ‘competent’ firefighter is paid an hourly rate of £3.58 between 8am-6pm and £1.70 from 6pm-8am.

Additional payments are made for attending incidents, drill nights and training courses at an hourly rate of £17.75.

The so-called ‘traditional’ on-call pay scheme involved an annual fee of £4,558 being paid to ‘development’ level firefighters and £5,832 for ‘competent’ ones, paid in monthly increments, with additional pay for any incidents, drill nights and training courses.

This retained scheme is based on either a part-time (63 hours per week) or full-time (84 hours per week) contract.