Firefighters begin industrial action over staffing shortages

Open-ended action relates to administrative duties only but could be escalated if no meaningful proposals emerge

Cork City Fire Brigade deals with a large gorse fire near houses in the Glen Park area of the city last March. Picture: Damian Coleman 

Firefighters in Cork City have embarked on limited industrial action in an ongoing row over staffing shortages which they claim is putting lives at risk.

The open-ended industrial action by Siptu members relates to administrative duties only and will not affect the emergency 999 service.

However, they warned that the industrial action could escalate unless Cork City Council comes forward with meaningful proposals to resolve the staffing issue affecting one of the city’s largest towns, Ballincollig.

“The root cause of this dispute lies with the failure of fire service management to reinstate the Ballincollig retained fire and rescue service or provide additional resources to the Cork City Fire Brigade to provide cover in this area,” Siptu organiser, Con Casey, said.

The town had a retained fire service when it was within the administrative area of Cork County Council until the 2019 city boundary extension.

Despite the launch of a high-profile recruitment campaign in October 2020, Cork City Council has yet to hire a single retained firefighter to crew the town’s fire station.

Mr Casey said the consequence of this has been an expansion of the area covered by the Cork City Fire Brigade without providing staff to operate the fire appliance in Ballincollig fire station, which is known as the ‘Fourth Pump’.

It is understood that the city’s 140 operational firefighters are prepared to staff the Ballincollig fire station until retained firefighters are recruited, trained, and ready for operational duty but that City Hall has ruled that out on cost grounds.

In a statement, Cork City Council said it invited Siptu to talks with a view to finding a solution to this dispute, remains available to meet union representatives, and has also sought the assistance of the Workplace Relations Commission.

It said: “Management is disappointed that union members have chosen to mount an industrial action when the Council had already made itself available for discussions.”

But a source said the council has had two years to find a resolution and has failed to do so.

“We are hoping that our industrial action will light a fire, so to speak, under management, to come up with meaningful proposals and present a resolution to this.”