EMERGENCY control operators are set to strike for three days over controversial changes to shift patterns.

The Fire Brigades Union claims the changes have forced many workers to quit or cut their hours because they have struggled to juggle family life.

Fire Service operators will walk out from 7am on Tuesday until 7am on Friday.

The FBU claims it has put alternative shift proposals to the fire service, which have been rejected.

Keith Handscomb, regional spokesman for the FBU, said: “Our control members are vital to the professional emergency response we give to 999 calls.

“The intolerable shift patterns imposed on them are having a devastating effect on their morale and family lives.”

The force control room relocated to the Essex Fire Service headquarters in Kelvdon Park, near Witham, earlier this year.

Since then, workers have reported numerous IT failures, which has seen them take down details of emergencies on pen and paper in order to dispatch fire engines.

A spokesman for Essex Fire Service said: “We have contingency arrangements in place and the public will not be affected.”