The Fire Brigade’s Union (FBU) have announced plans to organise a further three strikes on Christmas Eve, New Years Eve and 3rd January 2014 in an ongoing row over pensions.
In addition to the planned strike the FBU members are also planning an overtime ban which was joined by members in Scotland, who have a separate dispute about overtime.
FBU members in England and Wales will walk out for five hours from 19:00 GMT on 24th December 2013, for six hours from 18:30 GMT on 31st December 2013 and for two hours from 06:30 on 3rd January 2014.
In parts of the UK affected, it may well be that fire and rescue services may not be able to respond to all 999 calls, or if they do, the time taken to arrive at the scene of an incident may be much longer than normal. Priority will continue to be given to incidents were lives are at risk, which means that there may be an increased risk of extensive damage to property.
The authorities have not issued any specific guidance but in relation to your insurance policies, you should continue to take all reasonable precautions to guard against fire over the Christmas period. At the time of publishing this article it is unclear as to whether the strikes can be averted.
