IRRESPECTIVE of who is right or wrong in the current firemen's dispute, what I found astonishing is the facts and figures given to us by the Bolton Evening News.

Firstly, they can retire after 20 years on two-thirds' pay, and full pay after 30. What this will mean, if they get their demand of a basic £30,000 a year, is that a young man can join the fire service at 21 and retire at 41 on £20,000. Index linked and inflation proofed no doubt.

While the rest of Britain's workers have seen their occupational pension erode over the years to a point where anybody retiring today will be lucky to squeeze £10,000 a year out of their employers after 40 years' work, firefighters in their early 40s will be able to swan off into the sunset with twice that amount.

Secondly, that they can do this because their employers (us) pay 22 per cent of their salary into their pension fund. With their current wage added to the 11 per cent on offer, we would be paying them almost £30,000 anyway.

Perhaps one way round the dispute is to reduce our contributions to the pension fund by around 12 per cent and add that to the 11 per cent on offer. This will still make firefighters the highest paid employed manual workers in the land, while leaving them with a pension after 20 years most of us would kill for after 40.

Thirdly, they only work four days out of eight anyway.

May I suggest that any firefighter who thinks that the current offer is an insult (their words not mine) goes down to the Jobcentre. Tell them they would like a job that pays £30,000 a year, retiring after 20 years with a two-thirds pension and where they can spend four days out of eight at home. And see how near they get.

D. Lee

Wisbeck Road

Bolton