Firefighters in Oxfordshire could be balloted for industrial action if pay talks with employers do not progress well over the next seven days.

On Friday (June 4) national fire service employers moved closer to sealing an agreement with the Fire Brigades Union on working time between the hours of midnight and 7am.

If the FBU ratifies the agreement, the employers will release an outstanding 3.5 per cent of a 16 per cent staggered increase agreed last June and backdate it to November last year.

The deal should take firefighters' average annual pay from £21,000 to £25,000.

From November 2003 until last June there were 15 days of strikes and Army Green goddess fire engines were used, with firefighters only responding to major emergencies.

Barry Stockford, chairman of the county branch of the FBU, which represents the vast majority of 550 full-time and part-time firemen, said: "A national joint council meeting in Kingston on Friday is gathering all the information from branches around the country to determine whether or not to accept the 3.5 per cent.

"Then the FBU conference begins on Tuesday, June 15, and if there is still no agreement then at that point there could be a resolution for a ballot for industrial action."

As well as pay, there are other issues causing conflict between employers and union members. In London, thousands of firefighters in London were voting today on whether to take industrial action in a row over answering medical calls.

The FBU in London said its members in the capital were being forced to answer cases normally handled by the ambulance service, but Mr Stockford said this was not the case here.