Oxfordshire County Council’s Fire and Rescue Service have promised to respond to every 999 call they receive during the latest firefighters strike.
A five-hour stoppage is planned from 7pm to midnight tonight (Christmas Eve) by the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) in an ongoing dispute over pay and pensions.
A mixture of non-striking full-time personnel and on-call staff will provide cover in a repeat of the arrangement successfully used during recent periods of national FBU industrial action.
An agreement is in place with the local FBU branch to ensure that the strike can be broken and participating members can return to work if a serious incident which required significant fire and rescue service attendance occurred during the planned strike.
Chief fire officer David Etheridge said: “I would like to reassure people again that their fire and rescue service will deal with each and every 999 fire call it receives during this FBU-called strike period on Christmas Eve.”
Plans are currently being made over how to manage two further strikes planned by the FBU, one lasting six hours from 6.30pm on New Year’s Eve and one from 6.30am to 8.30am on Friday January 3.
