FBU urges employment tribunal to protect member benefits

The issue affects retained firefighters — those who do not work full-time at a fire station but are paid to spend periods of time on call — who joined the fire and rescue service before April 2006, and who transitioned from retained to full-time employment.

Concerns about the pension status of retained firefighters date back to 2006, when a “special status” category was created to enable retained firefighters to joint the New Firefighters’ Pension Scheme. 

The EU Part-Time Workers Directive, passed in that year, stipulated that they should be entitled to benefits broadly similar to those in the Firefighters’ Pension Scheme. 

The FBU therefore intends to take steps to protect the position of members in relation to this potential disadvantage arising out of the differences between the pension schemes, pending further negotiations on the issue

Mark Rowe, FBU

An options exercise was supposed to be carried out in 2014 to allow existing and former retained firefighters to join the NFPS and pay “appropriate contributions”, but a bulletin in July this year from the Local Government Association said some fire and rescue authorities had failed to conduct this exercise properly. A second options exercise is expected in 2023.

The second options exercise formed part of a memorandum reached between the Home Office, the FBU, the Fire and Rescue Authority and FRA employers, though the union and the LGA have since fallen into a dispute with the government — the former threatening legal action — over alleged attempts by the government to block the legal entitlements of firefighters suffering immediate detriment as a result of the McCloud remedy.

What’s at stake?

In an FBU circular published on September 13, FBU national officer Mark Rowe explained that, though a memorandum of understanding with the Home Office had successfully concluded negotiations over how to resolve retained firefighters’ pension claims, “the issue relating to transfers from [retained duty system] to whole-time employment remains to be resolved”.

The problem will only affect those members who joined the fire and rescue service before 2006, but could also apply to some members who transferred from RDS to full-time after that date.

The problem arises because of the differences in the way retirement benefits are calculated in the FPS and the NFPS.

“Whole-time firefighters were able to join the FPS until April 6 2006. RDS firefighters have been able to join the NFPS for employment from April 6 2006,” Rowe explained. 

“RDS firefighters who were employed before April 6 2006 have been able, under the so-called ‘first options exercise’, to take up ‘special category’ membership of the NFPS for employment between July 1 2000 and April 6 2006. This is sometimes referred to as membership of the ‘modified section’ of the NFPS.”

There are two principle differences between the benefit structures of the FPS and the modified section of the NFPS. The first is that the FPS has a normal retirement age of 55, but members can take their pension from age 50 if they have accrued 25 years’ pensionable service, meaning the NRA is, in effect, between 50 and 55. The modified section of the NFPS, by contrast, has an NRA of 55 for special members.

The second difference is that the modified section of the NFPS has an accrual rate of 1/45th pensionable pay a year, while the FPS has an ordinary accrual rate of 1/60th, and then a “fast accrual” rate after 20 years’ service that sees each additional year doubled, resulting in an accrual rate of 1/30th.

“Members who took up whole-time employment before April 6 2006 will have joined the FPS for their subsequent whole-time employment. After the first and second options exercises, they will also be members of the modified section of the NFPS in respect of their RDS employment,” Rowe explained.

“Those members will have pensions in two different places. But, as matters stand, they wouldn’t be able to count their NFPS employment towards entitlements in the FPS to (i) retirement from age 50 (after 25 years’ service); and (ii) fast accrual (after 20 years’ service).

“They will therefore be disadvantaged in comparison to a colleague with the same dates of employment, but whose employment is exclusively whole-time.”

The issue is especially pertinent given the forthcoming second options exercise, because of the additional periods of RDS employment that could be counted as pensionable under that exercise.

It might also affect members who moved to full-time employment after April 2006 and joined the NFPS, but who had RDS service before that date — provided there was a gap of no more than six months between their RDS and full-time service.

“The FBU therefore intends to take steps to protect the position of members in relation to this potential disadvantage arising out of the differences between the pension schemes, pending further negotiations on the issue,” Rowe said. 

“This can only be achieved by ensuring that a member who may be disadvantaged initiates an employment tribunal claim either during their employment, or within three months of the end of their employment.”

Next steps

The FBU has therefore invited affected members to complete a questionnaire, provided they fit two categories: the first covers those on retained duty before April 2006 and who transitioned to full-time before that date and within six months.

These are members “for whom the sum of (a) RDS service expressed as a proportion of whole-time service, and (b) whole-time service will reach at least 20 years before the member reaches age 55”, the FBU bulletin stated.

The second category covers members who were retained before 2006 and who transitioned to full-time after 2006 but still within six months. They would have joined the NFPS with respect to their full-time service, and elected to join the NFPS with respect to their retained service under the first options exercise.

“For both categories, members do not need to have reached 20 years’ employment in respect of aggregated RDS and whole-time employment already. Members are invited to come forward who will reach 20 years’ aggregated RDS and whole-time employment by the time they reach age 55,” the bulletin said.