New pay scheme for Dartmouth's on-call firefighters

A brand new pay scheme has been introduced at our fire station in Dartmouth, with the hopes to attract more on-call firefighters. The station needs more firefighters to ensure it can continue to respond to incidents in the town and surrounding area.

We're confident that our new pay for availability scheme, which is the first of its kind in the country, will make the crucial role more attractive to people living or working within five minutes of the fire station.

“In the past, some people found it hard to commit to the time we were expecting them to be available to us without being paid specifically for that time.

“This new scheme provides a great deal of flexibility and an enhanced work-life balance, allowing you to agree the hours that you will work.”

Dartmouth Station Manager, Mike Markham

Under our new scheme, firefighters are paid per hour for the time they are available to us to attend incidents while they are working in their primary job, or are at home. This can now be between 30 and 120 hours a week compared to the previous minimum of 63 hours per week.

It means that our on-call firefighters on the scheme could be paid more for the same cover they gave under the old payment method, which included a retainer fee and an hourly rate for when firefighters were engaged in work for us.

“We want to provide a more effective service for the public and at the moment we struggle to keep some of our on-call fire engines available due to a lack of firefighters, mainly in rural areas.

“The pay for availability scheme will help us to recruit and keep more on-call firefighters as it fits better with modern lifestyles and their other primary employment.”

Dartmouth Station Manager, Mike Markham

Find out more about becoming an on-call firefighter.