Firefighters voiced their demands for higher salaries and shorter working hours yesterday citing their relatively riskier job nature.

Nearly 400 firefighters voiced their dissatisfaction over long working hours at a brainstorming session initiated by the Fire Services Department Staff General Association yesterday morning.

Currently firefighters are required to work 54 hours weekly, while police, immigration, customs and prison officers generally work 48 hours per week.

They also complained about the starting salary for new firefighters which is HK$2,300 less than that of police officers. Given that their job nature is relatively riskier, the firefighters argued that they should be paid more and warned that the department will face a manpower shortage eventually if their salary is not revised up.

Speaking to the press after the session, chairman of the association Yuen Fong-him said representatives of the association had brought up the salary and job nature issues at a meeting with Henry Fan, chairman of the Standing Committee on Disciplined Services Salaries and Conditions of Service, on September 20.

Without promising any increase in salary, manpower or other resources, Fan only proposed to reduce working hours, on the condition that the existing services are not affected, Yuen recalled.

Meanwhile, although Fan appreciated the risks that firefighters put themselves at while carrying out their duties, he disagreed that the job nature of other disciplined forces is not as risky, and refused to put the issue in the review report.

Yuen added that the management of the Fire Services Department is supportive of their claims but there is not much they can do.

Vice-chairman of the association Chiu Sin-chung said firefighters do a lot more than just putting out fire, such as carrying out rescue operations and removal of trees during floods and typhoons. Yet, at HK$61.68, their hourly salary is the lowest among all disciplined forces. The hourly rates for junior police, immigration, prison and customs officers are: HK$80.96, HK$75.7, HK$69.39 and HK$65.31 respectively.

As disciplined officers, they do not want to resort to strikes or protests to make their demands heard, he stressed. But if their requests are not met, they will take further actions.

A Security Bureau spokesman said salary adjustment of disciplined forces is governed by an established system and is not decided by the bureau, but bureau officials would be happy to meet representatives of the association. The meeting was arranged for Friday.

(HK Edition 10/07/2008 page1)