FIREFIGHTERS will start voting today on whether they want to ban overtime in response to cuts.
Fire Brigades Union (FBU) leaders claim axing 80 frontline posts is unacceptable.
Merseyside Fire Authority voted to cut the jobs as part of a £5m cost-saving exercise in September. Another 36 uniform posts are going to be filled by civilian staff.
The FBU has demanded £2.7m of the cuts be shelved and suggested other ways of getting the money. But the fire service said those proposals would only bring in £160,000.
Merseyside FBU secretary Les Skarratts said: “This is a response to another mass of job cuts. We already have fire stations being staffed with dangerously low staffing figures across the county. It’s an absolute disgrace.”
Fire service spokesman Peter Rushton said many of the cuts had already been implemented and could not be undone.
