Firefighters' pay row heats up

Cameron Grylls. Photo / Alan Gibson

A firefighter injured in the Tamahere coolstore fire is now moonlighting as a nurse, saying he can't earn enough working full time for the Fire Service.

The firefighters' industrial dispute is heating up, with firefighters nationwide ramping up industrial action and from this week suspending the school-based Firewise education programme.

They allege the Government has put pressure on the Fire Service to refuse them a pay rise.

Cameron Grylls, a senior firefighter in Hamilton, was a first-responder to the Icepak coolstore fire last year.

He suffered minor injuries in the explosion that killed senior station officer Derek Lovell.

Two of his fellow firefighters remain injured and have yet to return to work.

Now, Grylls is taking part in the industrial action, saying his earnings from firefighting were insufficient.

"It just wasn't cutting the mustard, particularly as my wife has been having a lot of maternity leave recently."

Grylls has a mortgage and four children, three under the age of 6. He has spent nine years as a firefighter, but also moonlights one or two days a week as a nurse in the emergency room at Waikato Hospital to make ends meet. He said he now worked 70 to 80 hours a week.

Derek Best, secretary of the New Zealand Firefighters Union, said his members had been out of agreement since the last contract expired at the beginning of the year and six months of negotiations had led to effective deadlock.

"The latest offer is a zero per cent rise," he said, adding that many firefighters - like Grylls - were forced to moonlight in other employment.

"We're still attending callouts and maintaining the appliances, but that's about it.".

Best said he suspected that pressure to prevent pay rises was coming from the Beehive.

Fire Service spokesman Scott Sargentina denied political pressure: "You only need to step outside the door to see the kinds of marketplace we're operating in."

He said the dispute was not endangering the public.

$38,000
Firefighter's starting salary.

1850
Number of fire staff in industrial dispute.

21 months
Since last pay rise.