The size of fire service bosses' pay has been slammed by a union chief as firefighters face "in work poverty". Greater Manchester's Chief Fire Officer, Dave Russel earns £172,205 a year - joint fourth highest for his rank out of 48 brigades in England.
Mr Russel is leading cultural change and improving the regional service's performance after it was criticised in reports. He is popular amongst firefighters and has publicly remained silent over potential strike action by crews. But his salary and that of other chief officers dwarfs the £32, 244 that a fully qualified firefighter earns.
As reported in the Manchester Evening News firefighters have started a strike ballot after there was no improvement on a five percent pay offer. It raises the real prospect of crews walking out over for pay for the first time in 20 years.
Matt Wrack, the Manchester-born national leader of the Fire Brigades Union says that after "years of derisory pay offers" firefighters were having to use foodbanks. He said the ballot was a "last resort" and urged the government to intervene to resolve the stalemate. In November crews and control staff voted overwhelmingly to snub the offer in what union bosses said displayed a "remarkable strength of feeling". It was a three percent increase on an offer made in the summer. The ballot will close at the end of January.
The FBU says chief fire officers are paid an average pay of £148,000, with the highest being £206,000 – over six times more than an ordinary firefighter. They say "the stark inequalities in pay for firefighters and management" were revealed in data released as a result of Freedom of Information requests.
The union says some firefighters have to rely on food banks and take on additional jobs to afford the basics as inflation is currently at 10.7 per cent. It claims the recent pay offer, is a ‘real terms pay cut’.
The highest paid chief fire officer is, the London Commissioner, who is paid £206,040 a year. The figure for the West Midlands chief is £184,961; Merseyside, £174,241; followed by Greater Manchester and West Yorkshire on just over £172.000. The Lancashire chief earns £157,651 and the figure for Cheshire is £168,993.
Eleven fire officers are paid more than the prime minister, and every single chief fire officer in the country is on £100,000 or more. There is a chief fire officer for each of the UK’s 48 fire and rescue services.
Mr Wrack, Fire Brigades Union general secretary, said: “Firefighters and control staff are facing yet another real terms pay cut while fire chiefs rake in huge salaries. FBU members are increasingly facing real ‘In Work’ poverty, with firefighters having to rely on foodbanks and take on additional jobs to afford the basics.
“At the same time, some fire chiefs are also trying to persuade firefighters and control staff to step back from industrial action, to simply shut up about salaries that are several times smaller than their bosses.
“It’s insulting and stinks of hypocrisy of some chief officers who refuse to make the case for better pay for their workers. Chief fire officers are not worth six times more than firefighters, it was the latter who were called key workers during the pandemic delivering vital services including moving the bodies of the deceased. Firefighters and control staff are being left with no other choice but to take action.”
Mr Russel declined to comment but a spokesperson for the Greater Manchestrer Combined Authority, which has responsibility for running the fire service said: “The remuneration policy of the GMCA is available in the public domain, and pay is set in accordance with a transparent and consistent process.”
Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service is, under Mr Russel's leadership emerging from a turbulent few years. It was strongly criticised in a report last month on the response of the emergency services to the bombing of the Manchester Arena on May 22 2017. Firefighters were not dispatched to the scene for mote than two hours.
Even though he was boss of Lancashire Fire Service at the time of the attack, Mr Russel said last month in response to scathing criticism in the Arena report of the fire service: "The buck stops with me." Accepting that grave failures were made he added: “We are and will be accountable, I do not shy away from personal responsibility,”
In his statement last month, Greater Manchester Mayor, Andy Burnham, said the failure of the fire service to respond on the night “exposed the fact that something was seriously amiss with the overall response”. He said a raft of changes have been made since so it can better respond to a marauding terrorist attack (MTA). This, as well as improvement in leadership and culture, have been recognised by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services, he said.
In May one of Greater Manchester's highest ranking fire officers has lost an appeal against his dismissal. Assistant County Fire Officer, Dave Keelan, who earned £130,000 a year, was suspended by the Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service on November 22nd while an investigation took place into an "internal complaint".
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