Firefighters set to get a pay rise for Christmas

Firefighters holding a slogan for their pay campaign at Dunedin central fire station. Photo / Peter McIntosh

Firefighters are set to get a pay rise for Christmas, with a protracted industrial dispute on track to be resolved by the end of next week.

New Zealand Professional Firefighters Union Dunedin local secretary Senior Station Officer Mark Leonard said the union’s national committee had arrived at a proposed collective agreement which was being put to local committees around the country for ratification.

“The national committee are very optimistic that this will be passed before Christmas,” SSO Leonard said.

The new agreement, which was put to Dunedin firefighters yesterday evening, addressed the risk of cancer faced by firefighters, made provisions for annual blood screenings, life and income protection, a robust consultation process between the union and Fire and Emergency New Zealand (Fenz) and a “considerable increase” in the base rate paid to firefighters, especially those early in their career, which would bring them into line with other emergency services, SSO Leonard said.

He was hopeful the pay rise would help to fix recruitment issues.

Given the length of the dispute, the union was hoping to solve trust issues between the parties and hoped that in the future issues raised during the dispute, such as the state of Fenz’s appliance fleet, would be resolved with working parties.

“The union is definitely welcoming getting back in a working relationship with Fenz,” SSO Leonard said.

NZPFU Dunedin Local president and Senior Station Officer Antony Mason said it had been 18 months of hard negotiations.

Firefighters were looking forward to getting to business as usual and were very grateful for the huge amount of support they had received in Dunedin.

Walking off stations for the two one-hour stoppages had been tough on firefighters.

“It’s not something we want to be doing,” SSO Mason said.

The agreement would make for a very special Christmas, SSO Mason said.

NZPFU national secretary Wattie Watson was in Dunedin for the meeting yesterday and said the proposed agreement was a “relief”.

The union was proud to be bringing the industrial action to a close with decent terms for its members, Watson said.