Q&A: Resolving the firefighters' dispute

The first eight day strike came to an end without any sign of a deal over firefighters' wages.

The BBC's business correspondent Rory Cellan Jones looks at the ongoing battle.

How big is the gap between what the employers are offering and what the firefighters might accept? Can it be bridged by the modernisation savings?

The firefighters started off of with a 40% claim to increase their wages to £30,000.

They haven't actually withdrawn that claim but they've made it pretty clear over the last two or three weeks that they would accept 16% and that sort of figure was on the table when the talks broke down last Friday.

The problem is that the government has made it clear that it will not fund anything above 4% unless it is closely tied to modernisation.

The real challenge for all sides is to work out what modernisation will involve and whether it will actually save them any money in the long and short term.

What are the chances of a settlement in the short term?

It's quite difficult to see how this will be resolved in the short term when you've got two sides that appear determined not to lose face.

The Fire Brigades Union is saying that it had a very strong mandate - 87% - for its original strike.

There don't appear to be any signs of wavering amongst ordinary firefighters - they've got a strike programme in place up to Christmas.

The government, on the other hand, now seems to feel that it has got the upper hand by getting through this eight day strike without any major disasters.

It feels the armed forces are coping well - it's making it very clear that it doesn't want the employers to come back to the table with anything that has not been properly thought through and properly costed.

It's making sure the employers have run a slide rule over every single aspect of the modernisation and have worked out not only how to cost it but how to tie the unions in absolutely to agree to modernisation.

Is modernisation still the main sticking point in the agreement?

Yes - there's modernisation, what savings it could make, how big those savings could be and what that translates into in terms of a pay offer.

Some members of the armed forces say they haven't found the last week very challenging - does that strengthen the government's argument?

Yes - the government is using that in its PR offensive now having been on the back foot earlier in the dispute.

The firefighters would argue that they had a particularly quiet time and they didn't answer all the kinds of calls they usually answer.

They'd say that, in particular, they answer automatic fire alarms which most of the time turn out to be nothing.

The armed forces are not answering those unless there's further evidence of something wrong.

The government has definitely used the claims - it's got far fewer troops out than firefighters and they are by no means overstretched.

How significant to firefighters is the new NHS pay deal linked to modernisation?

It's being seized on by both sides.

The government says: "Here are people who have won themselves a decent pay rise by agreeing to substantial modernisation."

The firefighters are saying: "Well it does show that the government can be flexible with certain groups of workers - why not with us?"