The New Zealand Professional Firefighters Union is concerned about staffing stations due to vaccination requirements. Photo / Bevan Conley
The New Zealand Professional Firefighters Union is concerned about staffing stations due to vaccination requirements. Photo / Bevan Conley
Fire stations could face severe staffing issues as a result of the Covid-19 vaccine mandate, the firefighters' union says.
However, Fire and Emergency New Zealand says the current vaccine numbers look positive and it does not foresee any disruptions in service as a result of the mandate.
All firefighters, bothprofessional and volunteer, have to be vaccinated by November 29. The original deadline was November 15, but this was pushed back to give stations more time to manage the change.
Out of 2,000 total career firefighters nationally, 100 are not vaccinated, and 50 have yet to declare their status. Of the 11,500 volunteer firefighters, 600 are not vaccinated, and 1,600 have not declared either way. That means five per cent of career firefighters and five per cent of volunteer firefighters do not yet meet the Government's requirements to work after November 29.
The New Zealand Professional Firefighters Union said any reduction in staff as a result of the mandate could cause problems responding to emergencies.
Wattie Watson, the union's national secretary, said 100 of its 1,800 members remain unvaccinated.
"It's inevitable that the quality of responses (by firefighters to emergencies) will decline. " We don't have enough career firefighters anywhere at the moment. We're still at the levels we were at in the 80s. We rely on career firefighters taking significant overtime," she said.
Watson said the union had not been included in planning for the vaccine mandate's rollout. "This is a serious issue. Until we're involved in the planning on how to deal with it, we've got little confidence that the proper planning has taken place."
"The loss of even a low percentage (of firefighters) will be significant."
Katikati volunteer brigade senior firefighter Brendon Gibbs said one firefighter had already chosen not to be vaccinated and would be leaving as a result.
Already stretched thin, the Katikati Volunteer Fire Brigade will lose at least one firefighter because of the Covid-19 vaccination requirements. Photo / Stuart Whitaker
Gibbs said the team was already stretched and it was hard to find volunteers to be on call during the day because many residents lived out of town, and had work commitments.
"We sometimes struggle to get two truckloads out during the day now", Gibbs said, "because people are so far out of town. Getting people who can get time off work is difficult."
However, Gibbs thought losing a member of the team "won't be a lot different than where we are now", as they are already struggling to fill roles.
Fire Emergency New Zealand Bay of Plenty District Manager Jeff Maunder was confident that the vaccine requirements would not cause any significant staffing issues.
"The two-week extension allows us the time to have respectful conversations with those of our people who have chosen to remain unvaccinated, so we can support them to consider options from here.
"As an emergency response organisation we always have contingency plans in place so we can respond – it's what we do. Right through the pandemic we've been planning for how we could respond to unforeseen circumstances and keep our communities safe."
Maunder believed there was no danger of diminished service capacity in light of the mandate. "No matter what, Fire and Emergency is committed to serving our communities.
"We will still be responding to emergencies when our communities are in need – including in the Bay of Plenty."
