FBU and retirement age

The FBU fire brigades’ union has called the government’s proposals to raise the retirement age for firefighters from 55 to 60 “completely unworkable”.

It says that it does not take into account the physical demands of firefighting and that the government’s own report demonstrates that a very high proportion of firefighters would not be able to reach the proposed pension age. Instead they would face the prospect of being dismissed on grounds of capability. The union is trying to resolve the issue by negotiation rather than industrial action and its conference in May 2013 decided not to call a strike ballot at that point.