In a deal which reopens pay negotiations between the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) and local government employers, strike leaders said that they would suspend plans for industrial action on Tuesday and Wednesday and the following weekend.
At the end of a five-hour meeting of the 19-strong FBU executive, the union's general secretary, Andy Gilchrist, informed the Deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott, that the threat of the first national strike since 1977 had been averted.
The news was greeted with relief by Downing Street, where officials were concerned that a national strike could have a knock-on effect on other public services, including the London Underground, national rail services and schools.
The FBU insisted that the next eight days of stoppages, planned from 6 November would go ahead unless agreement on pay could be reached with the National Joint Council. The union is demanding a 40 per cent increase on the average pay of £21,531.
'This is very good news for the whole country,' Prescott said. 'I am delighted the FBU has agreed to sit down with the employers for talks on pay and modernisation. I hope this can now lead to a final settlement.'
Prescott had agreed with Sir George Bain, who is leading an independent review of the fire service, that certain elements of his survey would be brought forward.
Government sources said the move could mean the pay body could offer more than the tabled 4 per cent as long as it was linked to changes in working practices.
The assistant general secretary of the FBU, Mike Fordham, said: 'We have suspended the first two days starting on Tuesday and Saturday. The next meeting will be when we meet the National Joint Council [the employers' pay body] on Wednesday. The next strike is still scheduled for 6 November. They know that. We know that and Mr Prescott knows that.'
The FBU said 'categorically' that they had not been given an indication of a final pay offer.
The decision followed talks with Prescott on Thursday and Friday where a compromise to allow the FBU to climb down from its hard line position and avert the strike was hammered out.
Until yesterday the Government had stuck to the line that no new pay offer could be made until the Bain report in mid-December. Last week Bain insisted that he would stick to his original timetable, stating: 'You can have it quickly or thoroughly, but not both.'
However, it emerged yesterday that he will now deliver a 'road map' outlining his thinking on key issues such as how pay should reflect performance and experience, the flexibility of working patterns, the accountability of the fire service and, possibly, a method of determining pay deals.
Leaders of local authority employers welcomed the union's decision and said it gave renewed hope to the chances of settling the dispute. Spokesman John Ransford said: 'Further progress on pay and modernisation must go hand in hand.'
