FIREFIGHTERS yesterday announced the first 24-hour walkout in a three-year battle to save their pensions.

The Fire Brigades Union (FBU) said its members will stage an all-day stoppage in England and Wales on Thursday June 12 and a 10am-5pm strike on Saturday June 21 after ministers decided to impose “unworkable” changes making firefighters work longer and pay more into their pension schemes without any negotiation.

The June 12 walkout — coinciding with World Cup opener between Brazil and  Croatia — is the longest yet in the dispute. 

Firefighters will also refuse voluntary overtime between the first strike and 9am on Sunday June 22.

FBU general secretary Matt Wrack said strike action was “a difficult decision for us to take, but the only way to resolve this unnecessary and costly dispute is for the government to start listening to reason.”

FBU officials met Fire Minister Brandon Lewis on Tuesday to press for more discussion on plans which will see firefighters forced to work until they are 60 years old and penalised by the loss of half their pension if they are unable to maintain the high levels of physical fitness needed to do the job.

But the appeal “fell on deaf ears,” with the minister “burying his head in the sand,” reported Mr Wrack.

Labour’s London Assembly fire spokeswoman Fiona Twycross slammed “cynical” ministers who “know from their own review that two-thirds of firefighters will have to retire because of ill health when they are 55.

“Firefighters have a physically demanding job and the public want them to be fit and healthy,” she said. “Forcing them to work longer and taking part of their pension off them if they can’t physically cope is fundamentally unfair.”

Ms Twycross called on the government to talk to the FBU about its concerns.

But Mr Lewis opened a “consultation” on the proposals last month, signalling an end to negotiations with the FBU.

The union says the consultation is meaningless since the Department for Communities and Local Government is refusing to publish fully costed alternative proposals it has in its possession.

The government’s insistence that firefighters pay an ever-increasing proportion of their salary into their pensions have also led to members seeking to drop out, the union warned — which could leave the pension scheme “unsustainable.”

Firefighters already pay over £4,000 a year of an average £29,000 salary into their pensions, a figure which rose for the third year running in April — and will rise again in 2015 if ministers get their way.