Regarding Sue Dockett’s letter about the recent Fire Brigades Union strike.
She stated that “the main issue is if a firefighter cannot remain fit due to the ageing process before they are 60, is that they face dismissal and they will then have to wait until they are 67 to access their pension”.
If, as a result of “the ageing process” (not the consequences of doing their job) they are no longer able to do their job, I think it is perfectly reasonable to expect them to resign or, yes, be dismissed, just as would happen with other vocations.
In such circumstances it’s perfectly reasonable to then expect them - like anyone else who has become unemployed because, due to the aging process, they can no longer do their job - to wait until they reach retirement age to collect their pension.
Many other people in many other vocations are unable to do their job until they retire due to ageing - and some of those jobs are at least as “physical” as the work of firefighters but for much more (sometimes all of) their working day!
Those people have to quit work, or are sacked, and have to wait for their pensions until they qualify through age.
Firefighters should have to do the same.
S CLARKE
Via e-mail
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