More than 2,000 firefighters descended on Westminster this week to protest over changes to their pension scheme.
Fire Brigades Union (FBU) members from across London, and some from further afield, joined the 24-hour strike at the Methodist Central Hall which ended at 7am on Thursday (February 26) as they say changes to pensions and the retirement age are "unworkable".
The Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) called the strike action, which coincided with strikes across England, "unnecessary" but said contingency plans were in place so the public was still safe during the walk-out.
Matt Wrack, FBU general secretary said: “Firefighters are not getting the pension they were promised. The pension changes take no account of the real job that they do, that’s physically demanding.
“And they are paying huge amounts for it, over £4,000 a year on a salary of less than £29,000 a year. That’s one of the most expensive schemes in the public or private sector for a scheme that doesn’t even promise they’ll get paid anything in the end.”
A spokesman for the DCLG said: “Strike action is unnecessary and appears to be over a point which is a vast improvement on the 2006 scheme which required firefighters to work to 60 with no protection.
“We have been clear that firefighters get an unreduced pension or a job and have changed the National Framework through a statutory instrument to do so.”
FBU members have been on strike over 50 times since September 2013, with the last in December. In August last year, firefighters walked out on a blaze in Neasden to go on strike.
