Scottish ministers are considering drafting in the military to carry out firefighter duties if a strike goes ahead, the Daily Record can reveal.
About 33,000 members of the Fire Brigades Union across the United Kingdom have been balloted on strike action over a five per cent pay offer.
And it has emerged that the Scottish Government and the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service are weighing up a request for the military to step in. The Record understands talks have been held with the MoD to discuss Military Aid to Civil Authorities stepping in, if a strike takes place.
A Scottish Government spokesman said it was “working with the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service to consider if it would be appropriate to request military assistance as part of its business continuity arrangements”.
It comes after Scottish ambulance crews and some NHS workers called off strike action after members of two trade unions voted to accepted the government's pay offer.
After initially pausing planned action to take the “best and final” pay offer to members, 64 per cent of Unite members who voted were in favour of the deal. Members of Unison also voted to cancel action, with 57 per cent backing the deal on a turnout of 62 per cent.
Following negotiations with SNP Health Secretary Humza Yousaf and the intervention of First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, the new deal would mean NHS workers in Scotland would remain the best paid in the UK, and workers would get pay rises ranging from £2,205 to £2,751.
For the lowest paid it would be a rise of 11.3 per cent, with an average rise of 7.5 per cent. But despite Unite and Unison’s votes for the deal, other walkouts are still being threatened, including from the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) and Royal College of Physiotherapists (RCP) which are still to decide on the offer.
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