FIGHT TO KEEP RETAINED FIREFIGHTERS KICKS OFF IN HADDINGTON

Published on Fri 6th Mar 2009

Jim Hume, senior Liberal Democrat and MSP for the South of Scotland, this week kicked off his campaign to keep the vital retained firefighter service across the South of Scotland with a visit to Haddington Fire Station.

The EU Working Time Directive limits an employee's working week to 48 hours, but Britain has an opt out which is under threat and could be removed in three years' time. This would mean that retained firefighters could not carry out their fire service duties on top of their primary jobs.

Jim Hume MSP said:

"Clearly there has to be rigorous protection of employees' rights and working conditions, but I believe that keeping an exemption for certain emergency services would simultaneously safeguard those rights and would allow the continued successful delivery of the retained fire service which is vital to Haddington and East Lothian.

"There are five retained fire stations in East Lothian with one whole time station in Musselburgh so retained fire-fighters cover a huge area of East Lothian and they also provide additional support for incidents in Edinburgh. The retained stations are therefore vitally important for East Lothian and the fear is that if fire-fighters are limited by the Directive, then they simply won't be able to do their job.

"We need to ensure that an opt out is kept so that we do not lose this fundamentally essential emergency service."

ENDS