Daz34

There are no increments so your pay only rises in line with what the pay formula states and this is roughly inflation level

Only if you get to Senior officer level and those ranks are all but gone, even more so under Bain

Decisions that software engineers make do not put peoples lives at risk. A crew commander in the Fire Service makes those decisions on a regular basis, for an extra £1,500 on top of a firefighters salary

I bet on your lunch break you are not on call and are free to leave your place of work

What do you think they do the rest of the time?? What do the Army do when they are not fighting wars (apart from fighting fires obviously!!)Do you think they should be paid only when they go to war!?
Firefighters spend the majority of their time training, both practical & technical, promoting fire safety, cleaning and maintaining equipment & attending Special Service calls(anything from Car crashes, cats up trees, chemical incidents, floodings, etc)

END OF RANT!!!

jasey

I'm sure they don't attend cats up trees anymore - outwith their technical abilities and professional approach - apparently

Daz34

They do.
But only when requested by the RSPCA.

Darren

jasey

Oh - in that case give them the 40% payrise. I hadn't realised they'd modernised so much - only willing to attend cats up trees when summoned by other prefessionals

Daz34

I agree, there are some sensible things in Bain, but there are alot of things in it that WILL put the public & firefighters at greater risk.
It used to be the case that when you needed the police they would attend.
A friend's father heard intruders in his garage, and so called the police and told them to come and catch them red handed. They said they didn't have anyone to send! He called them back several times but to no avail. Finally he called and told them that he had gone down with a baseball bat to tackle them himself and had hit the one guy fairly hard and he might be dead.
Two police cars arrived within three minutes, caught the intruders & threatened to arrest my mates old man with wasting police time!
People are apathetic in this country. We may moan about cuts to the police etc but we will do bugger all about it.
We now accept that if we call the police we will more than likely get fobbed off so that it doesn't mess up there crime statistics & that the Ambulance service won't be able to send someone out within thirty minutes or that if you go to an A & E department you are in for a long wait.
At the moment if you need a fire engine to rescue you from a burning building or cut you out of a car you will get a highly trained crew there within five minutes in most parts of this country. No excuses, just a decent service.
There have been numerous govt & independent reports on the fire service, showing them to be the most efficient & cost effective area of the public sector who have changed and updated their methods constantly to meet new challenges.
But now this is all hidden away. they are militant uncaring lazy dinosaurs.
This country is shorty gonna get the cut price fire service that they deserve.
An ineffective service staffed by demoralised workers constantly looking for a better career. Just look at the police, NHS, teachers,etc,etc,etc

PG

but what were your thoughts of the service prior to the industrial action?
Even the Govt audit commission gave a very high% satisfaction rate year in year out......that has all been pushed to one side now though.

PG

AAAHRRRGG ! cant believe I am posting on these threads again

unclebuck

I thought they were ok. It's thier militant union that's letting them down. And now that all the cosey practices going on behind the scenes have been exposed, it shows that their (militant union leaders) claims are pretty much bogus.

pslewis

Its Bain or Pain firemen - welcome to the 2000's!!

Pete

PG

Daz,
From the outside looking in, it is hard for anyone to know what is involved day to day. This is an argument that will go on and on.
Bain does have some points that are valid once you dig through the ****. The same can be said for the amazing dissapearing Pathfinder report.
The smaller communities (like the area I live in) are the ones that will get hammered by Bain as there will be alot of closures due to re categorisation of fire cover. Which in turn will take the inner city pumps out to the towns / villages reducing the cover in city and round and round we go.
My old retained stn was turned out on Sat. and only 3 FF turned up ....The all singing all dancing combined control told them to attend with a crew of 3 !!!!
The info being put out to the public is sparce to say the least and no one is going to read through Bain or the likes (it makes great bedtime reading......dont you dare Pete)
This is another thread that will just churn out the same old stuff then will become personal attacks then a wee bit of sexual content will get it locked (Eh SCO )

[Edited by PG - 2/3/2003 12:03:06 PM]

unclebuck

Ha - that's a laugh [img]images/smilies/mad.gif[/img]

Currently it's nothing but excuses and no service at all. Why don't you get rid of that muppet Union Leader of yours if you want be taken seriously?

[Edited by unclebuck - 2/3/2003 2:04:40 PM]