FIREFIGHTERS threatened industrial action today in response to Mid and West Wales Fire Service’s plans to change working hours.

The Fire Brigades Union (FBU) accused senior managers of refusing to listen to concerns over the enforcement of new 12-hour shifts.

FBU Wales regional secretary Duncan Stewart-Ball said: “All options remain open, including an industrial action ballot which members on the ground and branches are discussing.”

Firefighters in Mid and West Wales currently work nine-hour day shifts and 15-hour night shifts, but the fire service is planning to change these to 12-hour shifts, both day and night.  

“Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service is in a state of crisis and firefighters have lost trust in senior leaders,” Mr Stewart-Ball said. 

“To improve the service for firefighters and the public, senior management must start listening to the concerns of the front line.”

Firefighters, family and supporters protested outside the Mid and West Wales HQ earlier this week, calling for the fire authority to scrap the planned changes.

The union insists that there is no justification for this rearrangement of working hours, which will negatively impact firefighters with childcare and other caring responsibilities. 

“Forcing firefighters to work 12-hour shifts will take a huge and avoidable toll on the physical and mental well-being of the workforce,” Mr Stewart-Ball said.

A spokesperson for Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service said the changes were intended “to ensure that the service’s assets and resources were utilised as efficiently as possible.

“A number of other fire and rescue services across the UK have moved to a 12-12 shift system,” the spokesperson added. 

But the FBU said the change was being implemented without consultation, despite January’s culture review calling for action following findings that failings by senior management have created a “boys’ club” at the top of the service and a culture of fear and mistrust.

FBU Mid and West Wales organiser Tom Wass said: “We keep the public safe at all hours of the day and night and the imposition of punishing shift patterns will do nothing to improve public safety. 

“Pushing firefighters to exhaustion and making work in the service incompatible with childcare will only force firefighters out of the service.”