Firefighters take industrial action as pay talks reach stalemate

Friday, 10 June 2022

Firefighters across the country are taking industrial action on Monday over pay, conditions, staff shortages and a lack of mental health support.

After more than a year of bargaining, New Zealand Professional Firefighters Union and Fire and Emergency New Zealand (FENZ) have reached a stalemate.

All members of the union will go on an administrative strike at 12:01am on Monday.

The strike notice says members who are covered by collective bargaining will not complete any of the mandatory administrative tasks required by FENZ, including gathering statistics, non-essential paperwork, training and attending conferences.

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Firefighters will continue to respond to all fires, medical incidents and all emergency response, so it will not impact public safety, union secretary Wattie Watson said.

However, union members have voted to escalate industrial action should negotiations between FENZ and the union not progress.

Watson said staff shortages were one of the key issues facing professional firefighters.

“Most firefighters are working 100 hours a week, but there is only 168 hours in a week.

“We’ve tried avoiding this but, our firefighters are exhausted,” she said about the industrial action.

Firefighters have not had a pay increase since July 2020.

New professional firefighters earn about $43,000 a year, with most earning between $53,000 and $64,000. The payscale tops out at $88,000 a year.

Even the most basic admin job in FENZ gets paid more, Watson said.

The union had asked for an 18% pay rise over three years. Under the FENZ offer, the bulk of members (more than two thirds) would receive a 1.5% to 2% pay rise, their first since July 2020.

“They are feeling hugely devalued and disrespected,” Watson said.

In addition to the dispute over pay, Watson said firefighters lacked the appropriate training to deal with the traumatic incidents they experienced on the job, especially when attending a medical call-out.

“Someone is either dying or dead when the firefighters are called out.”

The union does not believe FENZ was providing sufficient mental health support for this trauma.

Generally, the public was not aware of these aspects of the job, she said, adding that there was no additional pay for attending a medical call-out.

According to a St John report, FENZ responds to 96% of St John out-of-hospital call-outs. Those call-outs include, sudden infant death syndrome, suicides, overdoses and cardiac arrests.

And with some fire trucks out of commission, there were gaps in the service firefighters were able to provide.

The strike notice was sent on May 27, but the union has been in discussion with FENZ since early 2021.

FENZ chief executive Kerry Gregory said firefighters worked on an average 42 hours a week, before overtime, based on two-day shifts, followed by two night shifts, and four days off.

“I am aware that some personnel occasionally work long hours and like many organisations, we have recently been impacted by absences due to Omicron but I am not aware of any of our people routinely doing 80, 90 or 100 hours a week.”

While overtime had increased during the pandemic, of the 3700 weeks worked by our firefighters in March 2022, less than 1% were over 90 hours, she said.

Firefighters already got support for “psychologically demanding” work they did, Gregory said.

“The New Zealand Professional Firefighters Union has recently rejected our offer for settlement and given notice of a partial strike. The industrial action will not impact on our crews responding to emergencies.

“I’m disappointed the union has rejected our offer and decided to take this industrial action. But I acknowledge their right to do so.”

Gregory would not respond to claims outside the bargaining process.