The Government is disappointed with the manner in which Unite members of GFRS have chosen to demonstrate outside No 6 Convent Place today, again using taxpayer-funded equipment without permission and causing serious noise disturbance for workers in the building and in the vicinity.

The Government’s position has been outlined in detail and remains unchanged. Their salaries are all-inclusive, reflecting the requirement to provide a 24/7 service, including night working. As is well known, the GFRS also benefit from an informal ‘stand-down’ arrangement during night duties: a unique advantage of their positions that cannot be afforded to others such as medical workers and police officers.

Contrary to Unite’s claim, UK Fire and Rescue Services do not pay night shift allowances as standard (the vast majority – almost all – do not receive a shift disturbance allowance), nor do they pay basic salaries above those nationally agreed through the National Joint Council for Local Authority Fire and Rescue Services (Grey Book). It should also be noted that the Continuous Professional Development (CPD) payment payable to the GFRS is considerably higher than any comparable CPD payment within UK fire services, valued at £6,295 per year.

If HM Government of Gibraltar were to apply a 7.5% allowance to all public service grades working night shifts at a cost of millions of pounds, this would in many cases amount to double compensation, as shift working is already recognised either through a separate allowance or through consolidated pay.

As Unite outline in their own Press Release, GFRS personnel are already fairly compensated for any overtime, in addition to an extremely generous CPD allowance and other payments over and above their all-inclusive salaries. This amounts to a final pay packet that many in Gibraltar, and their counterparts in the UK, would envy.
No amount of noise will cover up the impropriety of Unite’s GFRS claim.