Retained firefighters back on picket lines as talks conclude without agreement

Despite the heavy rain, Kinsale firefighters were on the picket line this morning. Picture: Andy Gibson.

Retained firefighters were back on the picket lines as talks between Cork City's full-time firefighters and city management at the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) on their specific industrial action ended without agreement.

Pickets were placed at retained fire stations across the country as members of the retained service resumed their strike action over pay and conditions in the service. They maintained their response to life-threatening emergency calls, however.

The Labour Court had recommended that the retainer paid to retained firefighters be increased by between 24% and 32.7%.

But Siptu described the proposals as a major disappointment that would do nothing to address the recruitment and retention crisis in the service, and members voted by an overwhelming majority to reject the Labour Court recommendation.

Cork dispute

Meanwhile in Cork City, talks resumed at the WRC in a bid to resolve the city fire service's near-100-day dispute over staffing numbers.

The talks went on all day and were adjourned sometime after 7pm, to resume again in a number of weeks.

Neither side was prepared to comment afterwards, but it is understood that little or no progress was made/url] during the day-long session.

The limited industrial action by Siptu members employed as firefighters in the city began on April 20 over what they claimed was a shortage of staff which they said is endangering members and public safety.

It has not affected the brigade’s emergency response.

Cork City firefighters Colm O'Callaghan, Mike O'Herlihy (with Sophie O'Herlihy), Joe O'Keeffe, and Billy Crowley outside City Hall, Cork. Picture: Dan Linehan

The firefighters say the root cause of the dispute lies with the failure of fire service management to reinstate the Ballincollig retained fire and rescue service, or to provide additional resources to the city fire brigade to provide cover in this area following the 2019 city boundary extension, when the town became part of the city.

The station has become the focus of the dispute, with community protests backing firefighters' calls for it to reopen as a full-time 24/7 fire station.

Wednesday’s talks were reconvened at the WRC after firefighters rejected an interim proposal, agreed by Cork City Council and Siptu at the WRC on June 7, which included the reopening of Ballincollig Fire Station from 9am-6pm.

But it is understood that firefighters are still insisting that whatever deal is proposed, it must include the reopening of the Ballincollig station as a full-time 24/7 station.

A motion calling for the immediate reopening and full-time staffing of the station was voted down on Monday night at a specially-convened city council meeting called specifically to deal with the Section 140 motion.

Councillors were told that that there would be a €4.6m cost to reopen the station full-time which had not been factored into the 2023 budget and which could only be found by increasing income, through hiking items such as rents, rates, or parking costs, or by cutting services.

They were also told that adapting the fire station building for a full-time fire service could cost an additional €3m — and that this expenditure had not been provided for in the city’s 2023 budget either.

Councillors were also told that the city’s fire service was the highest cost per capita of full-time fire services in Ireland — €105.99 as against the average cost of €82.69, and that the Ballincollig station ground has been classed as a “medium low-risk station ground” with an incident rate of around 230 incidents per year, compared to Anglesea Street station which has just over 1,541 incidents per year, with Ballyvolane station at almost 1,120 incidents per year — both are categorised as being very high risk.