Life saving fire cover across much of Wiltshire could be under threat because of a Labour party deal in the European Parliament.  The Liberal Democrats are launching a campaign to keep the opt-out from a law which could stop Retained Fire Fighters from being on-call for more than 48 hours a week.

The EU Working Time Directive is designed to protect workers from being forced to work unfairly long hours, but it also includes people on-call, even if they are not at work. Until now workers have been allowed to ‘opt-out’ from the Directive and work longer hours, but this is set to change because Labour MEPs recently voted to discard the UK’s opt-out.

This change will hit Retained Fire Fighters particularly hard, where servicemen can regularly spend anything up to 120 hours on-call each week. 18 Fire Stations in Wiltshire are dependent on Retained Fire Fighters and most local stations are already understaffed. If firefighters are not allowed to be on-call for as long as they are needed, it could mean longer response times to call-outs and put people’s lives at risk.

Nick Radford, Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Spokesman for Salisbury and Lib Dem Councillor for Wilton, Peter Edge, joined a dozen retained firefighters at the Wilton Fire Station to launch the local campaign.

Speaking to the firefighters, Nick Radford said:

“It should be up to you to choose how long you work each week, not down to some Labour MEPs in Brussels.”

“60% of Wiltshire is covered by Retained Fire Fighters. Local people, who otherwise wouldn’t be, are alive today because of what you do. I am confident that thousands in Salisbury, and millions across the country, will sign our petition and agree that we must do whatever we can to save the opt-out our Fire Fighters need from this EU law.”

Chris Edge, Crew Manager 32 of the Retained Fire Service at Wilton said:

“What most of us do isn’t for the money, it’s for who we protect and serve. Without the opt-out, we will not be able to provide this service to our local community.

“Is it really going to be a case of responding to a call and as we are about to rescue someone from a house fire some government official telling us, “you only have fifteen minutes to do that as you have almost worked your 48 hours!” The situation is ludicrous. 

“Not only will this cost the County millions of pounds, in the worst case scenario people could die.  

The Liberal Democrat petition which calls on the Government to renegotiate to keep the opt-out can be signed online at www.keeptheoptout.com