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28th September 2007
New firefighter shift lengths, agreed between West Yorkshire fire chiefs and unions, will come into force next January, involving a 284,000-hour productivity increase.
In financial terms, the productivity rise equates to £2.8m. a year.
Assistant Chief Fire Officer Allan Hughes explained that discussions on varying shift lengths began two years ago as management and union leaders recognised the need to look at the structure of the working day.
“The current nine-hour day and 15-hour night shift system was introduced in 1978 but no longer fits comfortably with some of the duties expected of the modern firefighter.
“The new system, based on an 11-hour day and a 13-hour night, will potentially free up an extra 284,000 hours of time for firefighters to deliver community fire safety and prevention work.
“This is a significant step forward on the road to service modernisation, and provides more efficient work patterns which are clearly in the public interest. We’ve taken account of operational and domestic demands on employees and look forward to seeing the benefits to the service,” said Mr. Hughes.
The switch-over date will be 21 January 2008.