Dozens of emergency call handlers who were set to move to a new central hub in Dundee have resigned.
Just seven of the 43 staff from offices in Aberdeen and Inverness will make the move in December.
Call handling for the whole of the north of Scotland will be handled from a Dundee base from December 8.
Of the three dozen other staff, eight call handlers will be redeployed and 28 will take voluntary redundancy or retire.
The Scottish Fire and Rescue service claim the move will save them £2.3 million a year, but concede it will result in 60 job losses.
The Fire Brigades Union Scotland has since raised concerns over staff having a lack of local knowledge and increased pressure on handlers.
Dundee’s own operations centre is being upgraded and on September 28 staff will temporarily move out of the Macalpine Road facility and into portable buildings in its grounds.
They will be based there until work is complete in March 2017.
A spokeswoman for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service said: “We have worked with those individuals affected by the north migration to attempt to find them an alternative opportunity that meets their needs within our organisation.”
