Calling for retained firefighters to remain exempt from EU working directive

At present, many local fire services are provided by retained firefighters who already work in full time jobs, and supplement that employment by giving service to the local community.

By making themselves available at the drop of a hat to attend local emergencies, they are often on call outside of normal work hours.

Although the directive requires employers to make sure that employees do not work more than 48 hours a week but, the Conservative Government secured an ‘opt-out’ in 1993.

However, the European Parliament has now voted that there should be no exception to the working time directive for the UK. Furthermore, the majority of the European Parliament wants any period of ‘on-call’ time, including ‘inactive’ time, to count as working time for the purposes of the directive.

Retained firefighters would be breaching this rule as their combined employment and ‘on call’ time will normally exceed 48 hours. – and subsequently they could be forced to give up this valuable service to the community.