The Unite claim to have based their arguments for the GFRS on the basis that these should have equal pay with the Airport Fire and Rescue Service is particularly disingenuous given that when the AFRS was transferred from the MoD to the Gibraltar Government, earnings of AFRS grades was fixed on the basis of Unite's claims and insistence of equal pay for equal work. 

Unite agreed those rates of pay on that basis. 

It cannot now make the opposite claim for the GFRS. 

The Government will therefore not entertain the claim.

In addition, it should be noted that the GFRS have also had their Continuous Professional Development Allowance increased from £1,500 to over £6,000 to compensate and to modernise the force.

This should be met with proportional increases to professionalism and skills, yet the GFRS continue to have no formal governance oversight procedures and are not audited.

By contrast, the AFRS are audited by the CAA, MAA and Gibraltar Civil Aviation Authority, and earn the same as the GFRS as a result of the Unite claim for equal pay for equal work.

Unite therefore need to explain the rationale behind their current, reverse argument to that put in 2015.

In the past 12 years since the AFRS were integrated into the Government of Gibraltar a lot of work has been done to foster joint respect and work between the two brigades.  

These, current actions by Unite and a few money-minded individuals in the GFRS have undone all that work, breaking down relationships which are really important.

Additionally, the public should be aware that AFRS shifts are different to GFRS shifts.

Whilst the GFRS do night shifts, the AFRS work a minimum of 13 hrs a day and sometimes longer until the airfield shuts, so essentially from 0800-2100hrs+ working 3 days on 3 off consecutively, with a regular need to work overtime on one of their days off. 

As a result, although AFRS are not on night shifts they also work very unsociable hours.

Moreover GFRS pay in Gibraltar is far in excess of UK average firefighter pay. 

In Gibraltar average firefighter pay is £70,061.07. In the UK for personnel in wholetime firefighting roles, the average annual basic pay is £42,474.48, whilst the average annual gross pay is £44,760.00, according to the Local Government Association’s Firefighters’ Workforce Survey 2025.

This is after the settlements reached with the Government for the five fold increase of the CPD allowance which settled pay discussions with the GFRS.