the argument for not giving them the pay increase seems to be that fireman dont do much and spend most of their time sitting around, waiting to be called out. basically they're being paid to sit on their arse (as one letter i read described it).

Which may be true, especially in some smaller/quieter stations.

But, no other job requires you to risk your life as often as firefighting does.

the simple fact is, if i were trapped in a fire i would want someone who was trained to risk their life to save me. firemen are called on to do this regularly.

I have no objections to their pay increase at all.

I'd not heard about this one, but agree that they deserve the rise. They need danger money, surely? There was a big fire recently at a place that holds pallets in the industrial estate where I work and the flames could be seen miles away, they were so high. Whoever is brave enough (corny word, but appropriate here, I think) to tackle that deserves to be paid more than the big bosses who sit on their arses all day doin' nowt.

Dangerous professions always have more money attached to them, and for firemen not to get something similar is a bit of a slap in the face..

But then again, there are plenty of other professions that deserve much higher wages than they get at the moment, and I don't think the country could support it all.. Hmm maybe if they slashed all the fat-cats salaries there might be some in the budget..

Yes they should get a rise.

My grandad used to be a fireman!

Firemen should definately be paid more. Sure, you can have part-time fireman but full-time ones can at least have the time to train and can attend to fires more quickly. Plus there's the whole bravery issue. It's extremely dangerous work. Just think for example of the number of firemen who die in the disasters etc helping other people. They deserve the extra reward.

they should get the rise, but i think they should get the same as a police constable does, which is £25 grand. after seeing what the american firefighters risked their lives to do on sept 11th, if something like that ever happened here, we'd expect our lot to risk their lives too, they should be paud in accordance.

Another 'Aye' vote here.
I couldn't believe what I overheard this old guy say on the train the other day: "They don't need a payrise, they've all got part-time jobs so they're rolling in it..." Miss the point much?
But then I did also hear this guy comment as the train went through Bradford "They don't call out the police of there's trouble round here, they call out the Bengal Lancers." Love the sound of racial tolerance...

I agree they should have a pay rise , after all look at how much money Footballers get!

A fireman risks his life everytime he goes into save someone either from a fire , trapped on a high building , in a road crash and they just do it , they don't think about themselves , I for one would vote for them to have an increase. Firemen don't just sit about doing nothing all day either , they have to vist buisness and do spot checks they vist and talk to schools.

I think that 30K is the miminum they should expect. When I look at some of the bosses I have at the CPS and the silly money they earn for attending meetings all day and spouting complete tripe, and the fact they get paid more than a fireman, just makes me shake my head in disbelief.

Having said that, I think it's also true that police officers on the street are underpaid as well for all the crap they have to put up with.

I agree that firefighters should definitely get a huge pay rise - they routinely risk their lives in their jobs. As some of you have said, I really begrudge the fact that fat-cat bosses get paid huge amounts for sitting on their bums usually making poor decisions.

It's always the same that people whose jobs are not really important in the scheme of things get paid thousands, such as footballers, actors etc, while the people who do important, worthwhile jobs such as nurses, firefighters etc get paid poorly. Priorities?!

And don't even get me started on the fact that lifeboatmen are (as far as I know) unpaid volunteers!! I never used to know that these people also risk their lives in their jobs but for no money at all!!!

Just a quick post to say that I apreciate all the good will postings here.

I (and my dad) really hope that it won't come to a strike.

Mainly because we (my dad & I) don't belive that the Army (no disrespect to them) can't provide the service that the Fireservice can currently provide.

At the moment (plese someone correct me if I am wrong) but the fire service are the only Emergency service that has a target in which they have to attend in a certain number of minutes. They do tend to meet that target. In Bristol that target is about 7 minutes.

Speaking from experience (I've rung the fire brigade (on 999)
twice)they have met that target.

That can't be bad can it?

(Edited by Tycho 21/09/2002 03:23)

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by halojones
And don't even get me started on the fact that lifeboatmen are (as far as I know) unpaid volunteers!! I never used to know that these people also risk their lives in their jobs but for no money at all!!!

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Lifeboatmen also deserve to be paid a premium, & no they don't get paid.

The contributions that people pay to the RNLI only go to keep the Lifeboats themselves in service.

They too deerve to get paid for the lifesaving work they do.