RETAINED firefighters may feel the Christmas spirit has passed them by as Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service (HFRS) has this week announced it will be cutting sub officers' wages.

Bordon's fire station, on Conde Way, is run by retained firefighters and now Hampshire Retained Firefighters Union (HRFU), which represents the officers, is pleading with locals to sign a petition against the cuts.

More than 84 per cent of Hampshire is protected by these retained firefighters, who live their day-to- day lives until their alerts are activated only becoming firefighters when required.

"Unprofessional and dirty" is how the HRFU has described HFRS's recent decision to cut the pay of its retained sub officers.

The union has maintained that the officers will never strike because of the risk to public safety.

Rikki Noble, chairman of HRFU, said: "In a move which has both insulted and demoralised its retained officers, HFRS has informed them that, while they are expecting more from them, their role in the new rank-to-role evaluation recognises them as doing less than their full-time colleagues and so will, accordingly, reduce their pay.

"This process, which was tasked to 'de-militarise' the fire service and bring it more into a corporate model, has downgraded all of its retained sub officers."

He added that it is impossible to identify any differences between full-time and retained positions within HFRS.

"Both work for HFRS and work to deliver its three core aims of preventing, protecting and responding. Every resident of Hampshire must realise that a fire or road traffic incident needs the same professional skills wherever in the county it occurs.

"In fact, many identify that the skills in retained rural stations have to be more developed as it takes that much longer for additional emergency backup services to arrive. "A retained sub officer does not 'knock off' and put his job behind him at the end of a working shift."

Mr Noble continued: "This comes at a time when the government has already identified that the retained fire service is 'fire fighting on the cheap' and much needs to be done by fire services to improve both recruitment and retention within retained fire fighting.

"Retained fire fighters need to be properly valued as part of the integrated risk management process.  Hampshire's response to this is to discriminate against this one specific group of employees."

He said it is important to stress that the officers are not requesting a pay rise, despite that fact that their role has increased over the last few years.

"We urge every resident of Hampshire to think about the service that these individuals are supplying to their local communities and to contact HDRS and demand that it reverses this decision." Residents can sign the HRFU's petition at www. hrfu.org.uk.

Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service said the cuts were due to a number of job evaluations that have take place.

A spokesman from HFRS said: "We have evaluated 497 posts in total, and the outcome of this process at this stage is 406 (82 per cent) posts remain unchanged in terms of grading and salary, 47 (nine per cent) are moving up, and 44 (nine per cent) moving down. These results have been discussed with the staff concerned, and are subject to appeals, which will run from January 2006.

"Less than 10 per cent of the operational workforce is likely to be adversely affected by this process, essential to comply with the new government agenda for a modern fire and rescue service, and these individuals will not practically experience any salary drop as their pay is protected for three years under their terms and conditions.

"The job evaluation process examines in detail the job and its responsibilities and it is important to recognise that all jobs relate to each other so valuing one at one level has a knock-on effect elsewhere.

HFRS confirmed that officers in charge of retained stations would be dropping down a pay scale.

The spokesman added: "However, these staff may also be recompensed in the future through an additional responsibilities allowance, which the senior management team is currently considering.

"Individuals may appeal, however we need to move forward with this process to ensure people are rewarded and trained appropriately in the future."