A strike by fire service call operators claiming a lack of co-operation from management has ended.

Staff belonging to the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) walked out on March 10 over changes to shift patterns which employees claim made childcare difficult to arrange and took rest periods from staff.

Striking staff and union members visited Westminster yesterday (March 18) in hopes of arranging meetings with Essex MPs to discuss issues affecting staff.

It has not yet been announced if the strike, which ended at 7am today, was successful.

Jo Byrne, who represents control staff nationally on the FBU’s executive council, said: “A lot of control staff in Essex have complained of being bullied by fire service managers who are blaming them for the IT failures.

“After an imposed shift system, which has caused so much turmoil with family lives, control operators face the stress of working with a system that crashes constantly.

“Anyone would understand the stress this causes.

"Dispatching fire engines to a house fire never knowing if the system you’re using is going to work.

"This is completely unacceptable.”