Bay of Plenty career firefighters set to walk off job, after rejecting latest pay offer

Mount Maunganui senior station firefighters Brendon Dunn, Adam Martin and Paul McMah are among those who are set to take stop-work action for better pay and conditions. Photo / Supplied

Tauranga paid firefighters are set to walk off the job twice this month after rejecting the latest pay offer from Fire and Emergency NZ (FENZ).

NZ Professional Firefighters Union members around the country have voted to go on strike over the matter, with the one-hour strikes to take place between 11am and noon on August 19 and August 26.

The industrial action will include all career fire stations, training centres and 111 fire communications centres.

FENZ said the strike action was "disappointing" and that, while it has made contingency plans, there may be delays responding to some emergencies in some areas during the strike.

The parties are due to return to mediation talks on Wednesday and Thursday.

This would be the first time paid firefighters across the country would refuse to respond when their station sirens go off.

The union's industrial action up until now has largely been behind the scenes, involving limited training and no statistics gathering or reports for FENZ. It has been supported by the call-centre staff and volunteers.

Mount Maunganui career station officer Brendon Dunn, the president of the Tauranga Paid Firefighters Union, has been a firefighter for 18 years, 14 as a paid officer.

Last month he said some staff were working 80 to 100 hours a week because of a drive to help the community. On one occasion Dunn had worked a 24-hour shift.

In his view, firefighters needed more staff, better equipment and resources, and greater support.

Rotorua senior station officer and union secretary Des Chan said on Monday the decision to walk off the job had not been made lightly.

In his view: "It's got to the point that we had no choice as the latest offer from FENZ may look good on paper to some civilians, but I don't believe it's a fair offer given our current working environment. Especially when you take into account the increasing demands to attend more traumatic events and the physical and mental toll it takes on us."

The union wanted guaranteed mental health and wellbeing programmes that meet the needs of firefighters and ongoing access to psychological professionals.

"As I have said before this is not just about pay, it's very much about our health and safety, particularly our mental wellbeing. Lots of our staff are almost at breaking point."

Union national secretary Joanne Watson said earlier this week that about 94 per cent of members voted to strike, which reflected the "gravity" of the situation.

"This isn't just about better pay, our members also want enforceable protections to ensure they are not only appropriately staffed and resourced to protect the community, but also have better safeguards against occupational cancers and more support in terms of their physical and mental wellbeing," she said.

In her view, the revised remuneration being offered by FENZ, particularly for senior station officers who have "huge responsibilities", was too low.

"FENZ has removed any offer to pay a base wage increase for 2021 and instead is offering to pay from July 1, 2022.

"It's essentially a three-year deal and for a lot of our members for that three years that will be between eight and 12 per cent."

Fire and Emergency NZ deputy national commander Brendan Nally Photo / FENZ

In a written statement on Monday, FENZ's deputy national commander Brendan Nally said it was disappointing the union was escalating strike action despite receiving what he described as a "substantial" new pay offer that would see base salaries for all firefighters increase by between eight and 19 per cent over the next two years.

"Normal pay progression, in addition to the general pay rises above, will also continue.

"Fire and Emergency has demonstrated it is fully committed to trying to reach a settlement with the union."

In his view: "After over 13 months of negotiations, involving 29 days of bargaining and three days of mediation, the union has not significantly moved from its original position.

"The [union] is still seeking total increases across both pay and allowances of more than 40 per cent for most firefighters."

During the two one-hour strikes, FENZ would continue to respond to emergencies, but within areas served primarily by career firefighters, the response may be delayed, he said.

"For the rest of the country, volunteers from our 596 fire stations nationally will respond to emergencies as they do now and provide the services they are trained to do."

He said part of the contingency planning included not responding to less serious incidents in career zones during the strike - for example, animal rescues and alarm activations with no evidence of a fire.