Firefighter strikes to be suspended following late night negotiations

Strikes over firefighters pay and conditions have been grinding on for 10 weeks. Picture: Larry Cummins

Firefighter strikes will be suspended from midday after proposals were made during late night negotiations between unions and employers.

“Progress” has been made on improvements to pay and conditions which part-time firefighters have been fighting for, including an increase to the annual retainer fee they receive.

Talks at the Workplace Relations Commission were “slow and painful” but some progress was made after talks ended at around1.30am this morning, Karan O'Loughlin, Siptu Public Administration and Community Division Organiser, said.

“It didn’t tick all the boxes or deliver everything that we wanted but we have made progress on the guaranteed pay side and we have managed to knit some more value into the system for the first phase of this campaign,” Ms O'Loughlin said in a video recorded after the talks concluded early this morning.

“On that basis, the WRC is going to write up that document. We’ll have it in a few days because it will be a complex document.” 

A note containing the heads of agreement are expected to be circulated to SIPTU members on Thursday.

To allow the WRC to issue the document and to give members time to consider it, industrial action is suspended from midday, she said.

“From midday, people begin to work as normal in terms of the calls and start to make arrangements to recommence drills, training and station duties from next Monday.

“From midday, normal work resumes in terms of fire calls and any maintenance work you might be doing.” 

Ms O'Loughlin said that the proposed deal is in two parts. The first part deals with the retainer – a part-time firefighter’s guaranteed pay - and “knits in more value and gets commitments on some policy issues”.

Part two comes during the upcoming public sector pay talks where SIPTU expects public sector pay increases to be applied and when the retainer pay can be increased again.

Strikes over firefighters pay and conditions have been grinding on for 10 weeks.

Some 2,000 retained firefighters have been involved in the strikes with pickets at some 200 stations nationwide.

Part-time fire stations went “dark” from Saturday at 8am, providing no internal communications other than life-saving information.

Retained firefighters said that they would begin closing fire stations from Saturday, August 19, closing one additional station each week in each county if negotiations with management had not been resumed.

Retained firefighters have accused the Government of putting lives at risk by allowing a recruitment and retention crisis to persist in the service. They are demanding that the annual fee paid to retained firefighters is increased.

The Labour Court recently recommended a 24% to 32.7% increase in the retainer, bringing a payment of €8,870 up to €11,769. But Siptu members voted overwhelmingly to reject that recommendation.