Berkshire Circular: FBU Response – Removal of London Fringe Allowance
BERKSHIRE CIRCULAR
11 December 2011
The Fire Brigades Union (FBU) welcomes the opportunity to work with Royal Berkshire Fire Authority (RBFA) under its Partnership for Common Sense and is therefore saddened to find that it is part of a combined approach to the Joint Secretaries to resolve a Berkshire issue. The FBU endeavours to reach an agreement with RBFA in all its negotiations but occasionally it must disagree with the proposal presented to it – The FBU disagrees with the proposed loss of the London Fringe Allowance.
On 17 February 2011 RBFA decided to remove this allowance on the basis that it would realize a possible reduction of £130.9k to its annual budget. This decision was made without an impact assessment on the effect of the cutback upon individual employees in receipt of the allowance. The FBU feels that such an assessment would highlight the unfairness of the proposal on RBFAs hard-working fire-fighters. We urged the Fire Authority to undertake such a survey at the Stage 3 meeting on 3 August 2011.
The removal of the allowance comes at a time of economic hardship for many people. In particular, fire-fighters have not received a pay increase since 1 July 2009 in spite of the high inflation levels in the UK economy. They also face the prospect of ever increasing pension contributions from 2012 onwards. The Inner Fringe Allowance (£798) and the Outer Fringe Allowance (£555) make a significant contribution to the monthly income of the eligible Berkshire fire-fighters (£66.50 and £46.50 respectively).
RBFA has argued that if housing costs are used as an indicator of the cost of living, the allowance ‘…did not make sense.’ (Stage 2 Meeting Agenda, 13 May 2011). It contended that the price of housing stock varies within the county. This would be true anywhere. However, it is pertinent to note that the difference in average mortgage and rental costs is minimal between, for example, Slough and Newbury. In fact, the cost of renting a property is higher in Slough. These towns have been chosen as an illustration because they are at the opposite ends of Berkshire – and fire-fighters based at Slough in the East receive the higher Inner Fringe Allowance. This difference is demonstrated in the appendix and is shown with a UK comparison. Fire-fighters are not paid vast amounts of money (They do not earn much more than the average weekly earnings – also see appendix) and the UK comparison indicates that those who live and work in Berkshire do so in an area with a high cost of living. Indeed, in its Home Truths 2011 survey (accessed 11/12/11), the earnings of its employees when, in fact, it is obvious that they should be increased – it is in the Fire Authority’s interest to encourage stability in the workplace by employing people who can afford to live in or near the county and have futures invested in the area.
It has also been argued by RBFA that a ‘…sizeable minority…’ (ibid.) of its employees do not live in Berkshire and that the London Fringe Allowance did not have a ‘…significant impact on where people chose to live.’ (ibid.). Although the FBU accepts that many of its members cannot afford to live in the county, it disputes that the allowance has had no impact on where they chose to live. Fire-fighters employed by RBFA join this particular fire and rescue service because they wish to serve and protect the residents of Berkshire. In doing this, they accept that they may work at any station within the county but they also acknowledge that the allowance enables them to work in Berkshire while living where they can best afford to do so. In effect, the allowance gives them approximately one week’s money to pay for fuel to travel to and from work – this is not an insignificant amount when fuel costs are running at the level indicated in the appendix.
The FBU would also dispute that there is an economic necessity to withdraw the allowance. RBFA has £6.141m in reserves and is making ongoing savings through its recruitment freeze and associated lowering of training costs. Moreover, it has already moved 14 personnel from Windsor Fire Station, who received the Outer Fringe Allowance, when this station went to a Day Only shift pattern. Windsor Fire Station now looks set to close completely with a replacement arrangement independently funded by the local borough council – this will remove another 14 recipients of the allowance when these personnel are redistributed around the county. The sale of Windsor Fire Station will, of course, accrue a capital receipt; as did the recent sale of Cookham Fire Station. RBFA will argue that the capital budget cannot be used to fund a revenue-based outgoing such as the London Fringe Allowance. This is, of course, correct but when budgets are adjusted, it cannot be argued that RBFA is poor. For instance, in its 2011 Statement of Accounts, RBFA reported an underspend of £892k, which was transferred to the General Fund.
We congratulate RBFA on their shift within the negotiations on this subject – the Fire Authority moved from an offer of a lump sum payment equivalent to two years allowance for those fire-fighters interested in giving up their entitlement to the same offer but one that was delayed for a year. We advised our members to reject both offers: the first fell short of the amount that FBU members would have anyway received under RBFAs three year Pay and Benefits Protection Agreement; and the second was only equivalent to that scheme. Instead we offered RBFA the option of deferring the decision on the removal of the allowance for a period of three years – this would allow RBFA the opportunity to review its finances at the end of the CSR to see if there was still a need to remove the London Fringe Allowance. Had the decision then been made to continue with the cutback, the FBU would waive the pay protection element, as our members would have in effect worked this notice period, but would then request mediation on the issue. RBFA rejected this proposal, which indicates that it has entered into negotiations with only one outcome in mind.
Furthermore, the FBU notes that the Fire Authority has not taken all relevant matters into account in its rush to implement the removal of the allowance. There are three important points that the FBU seeks to make the following points:
- RBFA intends to establish a Wholetime Retained Support Unit at Ascot. This fire station falls within the Outer Fringe Allowance area. If this unit is founded before negotiations on the allowance are concluded, the FBU would expect that the individuals employed within it would be paid the allowance and have that payment protected.
- The Part-time Workers Settlement has confirmed that there should be parity between Retained and Wholetime fire-fighters in respect of their terms and conditions. We would argue therefore that our Retained members, who live and/or work within the London Fringe Allowance area, should be paid (and always should have been paid) this allowance. We ask that these RBFA employees are now paid the relevant allowance amount and have that payment backdated where applicable.
- RBFA accepts that the allowance is pensionable but now proposes to withdraw it without any consideration of how this will effect an individual’s final pension payment. The obvious answer is that unless individuals are within the last three years of their career, they will not realize the benefit of many years contributions based upon their receiving the London Fringe Allowance if it is removed. Therefore, they will have paid 11% contributions on the allowance for no benefit. This is patently unfair and the FBU would ask that all such contributions are repaid if the decision is made to withdraw the allowance.
We have argued that rather than withdrawing the allowance, RBFA should instead negotiate the implementation of a Berkshire Allowance. However, until such time as discussions on a Berkshire Allowance take place, the FBU feels that the London Fringe Allowance should be protected for those members who are fortunate to receive it and that its removal would be a retrograde step. The London Fringe Allowance as it stands in Berkshire is not generous when compared to the payment made by Surrey County Council to its employees: Wholetime fire-fighters in that county receive a ‘Surrey Allowance’ of £1225 p.a., and Retained fire-fighters are awarded an allowance payment of 25% of that amount. This Surrey Allowance increases inline with the NJC pay formula. This is the type of payment that is necessary to encourage fire-fighters to live and work in a high cost area; the FBU encourages RBFA to enter into negotiations on a Berkshire Allowance and revise its decision to remove the London Fringe Allowance.
***ENDS***
Appendix
All websites accessed 11 December 2011.
Annual salary
Firefighter annual salary – £28 199 http://www.rbfrs.co.uk/job_ff_wt_pay.html
Average weekly earning in UK – £463 (September 2011) (Therefore, annual salary = 463 x 52 = £24 076)
Property asking prices
Average property asking price – all property types – Newbury
£260 816 (November 2010) – £262 894 (November 2011)
http://www.home.co.uk/guides/asking_prices_report.htm?location=newbury&lastyear=1
Average asking price – all property types – Slough – £209 950 (November 2010) – £210 000 (November 2011)
This compares to an average property asking price in the UK of £162 109
http://www.landreg.gov.uk/house-prices
Property rental prices
Average property rent – Newbury – £1050
http://www.home.co.uk/for_rent/newbury/current_rents?location=newbury
Average property rent – Slough – £1173
http://www.home.co.uk/for_rent/slough/current_rents?location=slough
This contrasts with an average property rent in the UK of £604.41
Cost of fuel
Petrol 133.7 ppl and Diesel 140.9 ppl (18 November 2011)
http://www.theaa.com/motoring_advice/fuel/
Average commuting distance is 13km x 2 trips = 26 km per day (130km p.w.)
http://www.demographia.com/db-seuknewtowns.htm
Average fuel consumption of a car is 5.6 – 15 L/100km
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuel_economy_in_automobiles
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_UK_fuel_economy_ratings
Typical weekly commute would be 130km with a vehicle consuming 10L/100km using fuel priced at £1.36 per L. This would cost £17.68 p.w. plus insurance and wear and tear on vehicle.
