Fire crews across the Isle of Wight boycotted a training exercise, in a show of solidarity with the seven firefighters who have had their temporary contracts terminated.
Just one crew from Newport attended Exercise Apollo in East Cowes on Saturday, alongside one crew from Hampshire — originally drafted in to provide cover for Island crews while they completed the exercise.
Crew marked themselves as unavailable
An Island firefighter, who asked to remain anonymous, said whole-time and retained crew members marked themselves as unavailable throughout the duration of the exercise.
He said:
“We have a phone-in system for retained members where you can mark yourselves as available or unavailable.
“Retained crew members began making themselves available again in the afternoon — after the exercise was over.”
He added:
“The whole-time crews which were available were asked on Thursday if they would come and provide cover and we all refused due to the fact they had just terminated seven contracts of our friends and colleagues.”
Hampshire crews standing-by
He said as crews from Hampshire were standing by, it was safe for Island crews to mark themselves unavailable.
The firefighter also said ‘in excess of ten’ crew members had failed new fitness tests, with at least one resigning in protest.
He said:
“As a whole-time crew, workforce morale is at an all time low.
“We were initially told there would be no major changes to any shift systems or a reduction in work force in the near future.
“It gives us very little faith in our management — we have just been lied to.”
Watts: “Maintained a safe level of fire cover”
Howard Watts, the Island’s senior fire officer, said:
“The exercise was still a very useful test of our response to a major, multi-agency incident.
“We maintained a safe level of fire cover across the Island while it took place.”
Last week it was reported seven firefighters had been told they would not be kept on with the service beyond the end of the year.
Termination of contracts “always the plan”
Speaking last week, Mr Watts said this was always the plan:
“The firefighters on temporary contracts can return to their on-call (retained firefighter) duties once their current role ends.
“The on-call resource is already providing a safe level of cover on the Island, but this will bolster it further, taking the total to 95.
“All fire services would love to have more, including on the Island, where the ideal total would be 115 on-call firefighters.
“However, the Island has never had this level of on-call cover.”
This article is from the BBC’s LDRS (Local Democracy Reporter Service) scheme, which OnTheWight is taking part in. Some additions by OnTheWight. Ed
