Fire service recruits who may never been needed in action

Each will cost South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service more than £400 a month, on top of recruitment and training costs, although they may never be used.

According to the service, they would be available “to provide emergency response cover to the public in the event of exceptional excess demands on the service” as well as “in the event of local or national industrial action taken by firefighters”.

Historically, the Army was used to provide fire cover during strikes, using the national fleet of ‘green goddess’ fire engines, dating from the 1950s.

That arrangement was scrapped when the ageing machines reached the end of their operational life.

Now the South Yorkshire service has a legal obligation to provide emergency cover for industrial action.

It is unclear how many ‘contingency’ firefighters they need to provide that cover, but there are around 600 regular firefighters in the county.

In addition to full-time staff, the South Yorkshire service already uses part-time ‘retained’ colleagues, who respond to emergencies from home, rather than being station-based.

Providing contingency cover will add costs for a service which has been under financial pressure for years.

Successful staff will be on zero-hours contracts, but will get a retainer of £400 every four weeks.

If needed, they will be paid £13.40 per hour, but the minimum for any call out – however short – would be 12 hours pay, £160.

The service explained: “There will be no guarantee of future work – this is called a zero hours contract.”

An assessment day will be held on June 13, with a practical testing day on July 5.

Those who pass those tests will be asked to take a medical, including a substance misuse test.

If numbers exceed the level required, the ‘highest performing will be prioritised’, according to recruitment documents.

Training for successful candidates will last from September 29 to October 17.

At present, the service is recruiting operatives, or firefighters, but is also looking for interest from those able to drive fire trucks, though those roles “will not be progressing right away”.