Roles disestablished under FENZ restructure, but redeployment available

Friday, 12 June 2020

FENZ are disestablishing several positions, but intending to have no or close to no redundancies.

Fire and Emergency New Zealand has announced it will disestablish a number of positions and create new roles at the same time as part of a national restructure.

In a statement, FENZ national commander Kerry Gregory said the organisation, which employs 14,000 people, announced changes to its structure on Thursday which included disestablishing some roles and proposing to establish 268 new positions.

There are 171 people affected by the decision, Gregory said.

'I want to make it very clear that no Fire and Emergency employees have lost their jobs, and no-one has been instructed to apply for a lesser position.

'Our aim is to redeploy as many people as possible into positions in the new structure that align with their skills and preferences. Our intention is to have zero or close to zero redundancies as we are committed to increasing the number of our people from what we have today.'

* Safety fears amid Fire and Emergency New Zealand proposed restructure

Gregory said FENZ wrote to all staff currently employed in a position that was disestablished, to make sure they were notified of the impact on them personally, as well as to explain how it will work with them to redeploy them into new positions that appropriately match their skills, qualifications, experience and preferences.

'The terms and conditions that are provided for the new positions do not impact the decisions to disestablish current positions, so we are discussing these separately.'

However, the New Zealand Professional Firefighters' Union has raised objections to the changes, saying letters were sent to Fire Risk Management Officers (FRMOs) saying their roles had been disestablished, it was a notice of redundancy and there were redeployment options yet to be explored.

NZPFU national secretary Joanne Watson said it was not just about employment, but a matter of safety for both firefighters and the public.

The jobs needed professional career firefighters with experience, not someone who had probably never commanded a significant fire, she said.

Gregory said safety for firefighters and the public was paramount.

'This will not change. As happens now, only personnel with the right skills and the right level of experience will be in charge of an emergency response.

'With any significant change, such as the changes announced yesterday, there will be different views on the best way forward.

'We have engaged constructively with all of our unions and associations throughout this process and will continue to do so. Their feedback has helped us shape the proposals and decisions we have made.'