Proby (or ex proby with 3 years!)
Been through this before and it was VERY clear in the Pay Agreement. No one should not understand and certainly not the FRS personnel department!
It is absolutley amazing, nay disgusting, that there are FRS who do not know what they are doing about this. The way for all staff to move to competent pay is so crucial that is beggars belief that there are managers without the brains to have worked this out, especially when it is in writing and there are so many who already know! I am also somewhat bemused by personnel not having read these documents themselves - it is your pay and how can you ever be deemed competent (or maintain if so deemed already) if you don't take responsibility for yourself too! Unit 2 of the Ff NOS!
So for those who have chosen to ignore all the documentation that has been around until now here we go again:
4.33 Whole-time Firefighters and Fire Control Operators with less than four years’ service on 6th November 2003 will be assimilated to temporary assimilation pay points with effect from 7th November 2003. These assimilation points are equivalent to the current pay points (up to and including fourth year) enhanced by 7% with effect from 7th November 2003, 4.2% from 1st July 2004 and subsequent pay increases. Employees in this position will continue to receive increments on the assimilation points related to their length of service. They will move onto the competent rate of pay once they have completed four years’ service or are deemed competent in IPDS terms, whichever is the earlier.
For those starting now and therefore on the new route to competent pay:
From the Grey Book -
Rates of pay are based on defined stages of development leading to demonstration of competence in the employee’s role. These stages are:
Training
For the roles of Firefighter and Firefighter (Control) the training stage is the point at which an employee is in full-time training and is not yet performing the role in its appropriate context. An employee in this position will receive the trainee rate of pay.
Development
The development stage is where an employee is working under supervision in the role and is being assessed against the different functions that make up that role. An employee at this stage, before demonstrating competence in the full requirements of the role, will receive the development rate of pay.
Competent
After all applicable functions have been assessed as having been achieved, the employee will have demonstrated “competence” in his or her role and will receive the appropriate competent rate of pay
For a Firefighter this is all 9 units of the NOS - the NVQ would give you a qualification after successful demonstration against 7, the other two would still need to be completed so would not give competent for pay purposes, just a part thereof. However, again from the Grey Book:
As with all other units in a role map, a fire and rescue authority can require an employee to carry out driving duties. Where the fire and rescue authority does not require an employee to drive or, for genuine reasons, the employee is unable to drive he or she shall be regarded as competent in the role subject to having demonstrated competence in all other applicable functions in the role map.
So you do not have to be an appliance driver (Unit 9 in full) to be competent for pay purposes unless the FRS requires you to, you may need to be a light vehicle driver though and all the other competence within Unit 9, bar the LGV driving.
For those thinking of the 'special responsibility payments' they should be awarded it is worth noting the words from the Grey Book on the role maps:
The units of competence that form each of these roles are laid down in the NJC document – Fire and Rescue Services Rolemaps. Fire and rescue authorities can require any reasonable activity to be carried out by an individual employee within his or her role map. These role maps reflect fire and rescue service responsibilities incorporated into local Integrated Risk Management Plans in order to:
Apply a risk-based approach to fire cover and to all its activities in deciding how best to use its resources.
Focus on reducing the level of fire and other emergencies.
Develop and maintain effective partnerships with a range of agencies in the public, private and voluntary sectors where these can deliver cost-effective improvements in community safety.
Adopt safe systems of working to secure the health and safety of both its staff and the general public.
Minimise the impact of the incidents it attends and of its response at those incidents on the environment.
So none really available for anything, for example IRU, Rope rescue, TL, ALP etc - all fall within the above.
The old qualified examination is just that - the old one. There is no qualified examination any longer.
Retained duty when off from WT duty time is now available for any FRS wishing to offer it and there are too many doing this aleady to note. The Grey Book makes clear that there should be two periods of 24 hours free of duty though, this may mean only 2 days out of 8 when a WT member may be eligible for RT duty? Also if in an adjoining service then your service should require you to comply with their secondary employment rules.
