New Fire Minister is announced
Following the implementation of a new government and subsequent reshuffle, it has now been announced that Mark Francois MP is the new Fire Minister, taking over from Penny Mordaunt.
Previously the Minister of State for the Armed Forces, Mr Francois is currently the Conservative MP for Rayleigh and Wickford.
Following this appointment we will seek a meeting with the new minister as early as possible and look forward to a productive working relationship in the future. We will be asking the new minister to put the recruitment and retention of Retained firefighters at the top of his agenda.
Consultation response to Staffordshire FRS proposals
The RFU submitted a formal response to the consultation process recently conducted by Staffordshire Fire & Rescue Service, which included the proposal to remove ALL Retained firefighters.
Within our response we not only questioned the economic validity of the services proposals but we also provided viable alternative solutions that produced the required savings (£1.75m) without increasing risk to the public. We have already received positive feedback from some elected members to our response and we will continue to represent the interests of our members as talks continue.
Modified Pension Scheme
We continue to provide advice to members who are contacting both our local officials and RFU HQ. If you have received the relevant paperwork from your FRS employer, please do not ignore it, failure to respond within the designated timescales will mean you will lose any right you have to access the Modified Scheme.
If in doubt please contact an RFU representative.
Member details
You can, as a member update any changes in personal circumstance via our website, it is important that we hold the correct contact information for you to enable us to communicate in a prompt and timely fashion.
You can update your details here.
Station Rep Packs
The role of a station rep is the key link between RFU HQ, the local committee and our members, we have provided a toolkit for station reps that can be accessed via our website here.
Alternatively, if you are interested in becoming either a station rep or part of the local committee please contact RFU HQ via email here.
National Pay Offer
The National Employers have put forward a pay offer of 1% commencing on 01 July 2015. This offer is the same level of increase which has been offered and accepted in previous years following the previous pay freeze.
We expect the offer to be accepted in the coming weeks.
National RDS Working Group
The next meeting of the RDS working group is due to take place in Glasgow on 18 June. This is a rescheduled meeting from February which was cancelled due to industrial action. We will endeavour to update members on any relevant points of note, following the meeting.
