FIREFIGHTERS shifts will change from early next year and lead to a massive rise in fire prevention work.
The new shifts, agreed between West Yorkshire fire chiefs and unions, will come into force next January and involve a 284,000-hour productivity increase.
In financial terms, the productivity rise equates to £2.8m a year because the crews will be doing longer day shift work and more community fire safety work.
Assistant Chief Fire Officer Allan Hughes said 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.
He said: “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.’’
The switch-over happens on January 21 next year.
