Firefighter: Looming strike action gut wrenching but necessary

Wednesday, 2 November 2022

Invercargill fire station officer Aaron Ramsey is the New Zealand Professional Firefighters Union Invercargill representative.

An Invercargill firefighter preparing to take strike action says it’s gut-wrenching to potentially put the public at risk.

But he believes the walkout is necessary to get a resolution to protracted negotiations.

Unionised firefighters nationwide are preparing to hold four one-hour strikes as they battle for safer staffing levels, higher pay and better physical and mental health support.

The nationwide strikes will be held from 11am to noon on November 4, 7, 11 and 14.

During the first strike on Friday, Invercargill’s firefighters will walk through city streets.

Bargaining between the unionised firefighters and Fire and Emergency New Zealand has dragged on for more than 16 months and firefighters are experiencing sheer frustration, said Aaron Ramsey, an Invercargill fire officer and union secretary.

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The Government had set expectations for the issues to be resolved but FENZ were still “dragging their feet”, he said.

“They do not value career firefighters, that is very evident.”

Walking off the job was “gut-wrenching”.

But he said history had shown strike action got the public involved, which put pressure on the Government and FENZ to address the issues the firefighters were battling for.

Fire and Emergency NZ chief executive Kerry Gregory.

“It will speed up a resolution if we can get the public behind us to have the right equipment and training and support to keep our community safe.”

Ramsey said FENZ had been “making all the right noises” in negotiations but weren’t backing it up with action.

A third-party mediator’s report between the firefighters union and FENZ in October found remuneration, health and safety concerns and staffing shortages were the main points of contention.

The mediator, employment law specialist Graeme Colgan, said FENZ firefighters were underpaid, with his report recommending three salary increases of 3.5% in 2021-2022, 7.5% in 2022-2023 and 6.5% in 2023-2024 and a sign-on bonus of $1500.

Colgan’s report also said there had been inadequate recruitment of firefighters for some years, and the low salaries for trainees and graduates were unattractive and counterproductive to recruitment.

FENZ chief executive Kerry Gregory said the organisation “absolutely values our career firefighters – our people are our biggest asset”.

Gregory acknowledged there had been a lack of trust and confidence between the parties, but said he was determined to rebuild the relationship with the firefighters’ union.

“Our aim is for a collective agreement that’s fair for our professional firefighters, as well as being affordable and sustainable for Fire and Emergency.”

The mediator’s final recommendations were a key step towards settling a new collective agreement and rebuilding trust, he said.

“I had hoped the firefighters’ union would have respected Mr Colgan’s recommendation that strike strategies should be held off while both parties work through the recommendations and focus on reaching settlement,” Gregory said.

He agreed there was an immediate need for more career firefighters and said FENZ had four recruit courses coming up which would add 100 new firefighters during the next 12 months.

However, Ramsey said the 100 new firefighters would just replace staff who had left.

Gregory agreed the salaries of trainee and recently graduated firefighters was not where it needed to be, but believed FENZ ’s most recent offer reflected this.

Ramsey acknowledged FENZ ’s attempts to address the pay rates for recruits. But he said it had not gone far enough to address pay rates for the remainder of the firefighters who were also facing rising living costs and financial pressures.