AN INVESTIGATION was under way last night into Merseyside chief fire officer’s comments that some public sector workers are “bone idle”.
Tony McGuirk, the £200,000-a-year head of Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service (MFRS), made the slur at a meeting of the right-wing think tank Reform.
Councillors on the region’s fire authority initially said they would back the chief, but on Tuesday voted to launch an external probe into the remarks.
Beforehand, Mr McGuirk had voluntarily referred the matter to the authority to look into.
The probe is the first step on a road that could see him in front of a disciplinary panel – though no proceedings have so far started.
Mr McGuirk’s comments went largely unnoticed at first.
But they sparked fury after being circulated at the Trades Union Congress in Manchester last week.
Mr McGuirk was quoted as saying: “We’ve got some bone idle people in the public sector. There, I said it – bone idle people.”
