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RETAINED FIREFIGHTERS ARE set to escalate their strike action which has come about due to staffing concerns.
The Retained Fire Service is a 2,000 strong part-time workforce that provides fire and first responder emergency services across the country.
Siptu members employed as Retained Fire Services firefighters have been engaged in industrial action in recent weeks due to what the trade union describes as a “staffing crisis which threatens this vital community resource”.
The Siptu National Retained Fire Fighter Committee today confirmed that union members will “go dark” on Saturday morning after what it describes as a “failure of government to respond to their legitimate concerns”.
Siptu’s community division organiser Karan O’Loughlin today noted that it’s been “nine weeks since this industrial action commenced”.
She claimed that the “silence from government has been astonishing” and added: “It has abandoned the retained fire service, leaving fire fighters at the side of the road in an effort to break their dispute.”
O’Loughlin said the retained fire service is “steadfast in their belief that the service will collapse if adequate measures are not taken to address the current recruitment and retention crisis”.
She added that the “dispute will continue until this happens”.
Today, the National Retained Fire Fighter Committee agreed that as of 8.00am this coming Saturday, all stations will “go dark and will have no internal communications with management other than life saving information”.
This is in addition to strike action that was resumed last month when retained firefighters voted by an overwhelming majority to reject Labour Court recommendations.
O’Loughlin warned that if the escalation doesn’t “encourage management back to the table” then on the following Saturday, 19 August, “an additional station will close each week in each county”.
“Stations around the country are already closed 50% of the time because of the refusal by management to agree adequate cover arrangements with fire fighters,” said O’Loughlin, “and because many of them don’t have enough staff to respond to calls.”
In a statement to The Journal, Michael Farrell, a firefighter based in Ballymahon, Co Longford said: “There’s a feeling that we don’t have any choice, but at the moment there’s still support for us in the local community.
“The purpose of the escalation is to bring management back to the table. We have no desire or intention to put anyone at risk, and I think our communities know that.”
Sinn Féin’s spokesperson on workers’ rights, TD Louise O’Reilly, said today’s decision to escalate industrial action is a “direct result of Minister Darragh O’Brien missing in action”.
“They (retained firefighters) feel they have no option to escalate industrial action and this is a direct result of Minister Darragh O’Brien missing in action,” said O’Reilly.
She added that “it is time now for him to intervene and bring a resolution to this dispute”.
“Retained firefighters are expected to be on call 24/7, 351 days of the year and to remain within a few kilometres of their local fire station,” said O’Reilly.
“All for a salary of 99 cent an hour for cover.”
The Sinn Féin TD said that “firefighters should not be forced out onto a picket line” and that “they deserve decent terms and conditions”.
“They, and our communities, deserve to be safe,” added O’Reilly.
She accused Minister O’Brien of “running away from his responsibilities” and called on him to “work with the retained firefighters to bring about a just and fair resolution to this industrial dispute”.
-With additional reporting from Steven Fox
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We heard during the pandemic from the government how they and the state owes the front-line services for the tremendous work was being carried out by them…now let us see the government giving these workers is fireman, nurses, guards, and the army… as we see we cannot get anyone to go onto these services
@Paul Maguire: it takes a while to qualify, esp for EMT. It’s not a course you can do overnight. I’m a volunteer for the last 11 years with a org and I’m waiting to do my EMT. To staff a ambulance you need to a minimum EMT and be PHECC registered. It’s not a job a 17 year old kid can just hand in his CV to. It’s a very difficult course as been a made up patient for osces
@Alan Scott: To become a retained firefighter its a 3 week recruitment course, 2 week breathing apparatus course and 1 week fire behaviour course. After there is constant training including water rescue, emergency first responder and so on. The problem is recruitment and retention. People are leaving the service and cannot be replaced. Guaranteed income is between €8k and €10k. The government conducted a survey of the retained service and deemed it not fit for purpose. The government then did nothing to fix it. The firefighters of Ireland have constantly asked for it to be fixed until we ultimately had to go on strike to highlight the seriousness of the crisis. Whether we strike or not, the service still has to be fixed…..we are just trying to force them into doing it. People always said to me ” how can you do that job” , now that they realise the commitment involved, they ask ” why do you do that job”.
WE DO NOT WANT TO STRIKE AND CLOSE STATIONS BUT WE WILL NOT BACK DOWN
@Sean Henehan: If 50% of the stations have been closed for 9 weeks or whatever and no one has noticed would it mit just be easier and better to make the busier stations full time and close the rest? Probably not want anyone wants to hear but sounds like that’s what everyone is looking for and neither side is willing to say. Smaller stations will get screwed out of this mark my words
@Ryan Simmons: Good point Ryan but summer is generally a quieter time for incidents in the home etc, if this is still going on into the winter it will have a big effect. For example a chimney fire can become very serious if not dealt with in a timely manner. Turn out times are hugely reduced because of stations being closed
@Sean Henehan: and you have my support wholeheartedly and the entire nation
@Ryan Simmons: FFG bot!….. How about fix the terms and conditions instead of running them into the ground needlessly. Management needs to go for running a critical service into the ground. Govt needs to take a long hard look at themselves (not hard for Leo) for standing by and letting it happen…… It is an essential service, lives at stake, and it has been mismanaged. Shocking stuff, shocking but not surprising
@another one? what’s going on is the semi state sec: Easy to throw nonsense politics around if you can’t see the wood for the trees. Doesn’t matter who is in power, money talks. All parties pay lip service to whatever you want to hear. All comes down to what makes sense financially. critical service? How are children’s mental health services in your area? How are disability services in your area? Why are smaller hospitals staffed with inexperienced locums? Want me to go on? If you want to go the politics road, this is just another political football, none of them really care. Doesn’t matter who’s in power and if you think it does there’s no help for you. All that matters is what makes sense on the bottom line. Firefighters deserve more, no argument, but like anything there’s a tipping point. @Sean Henehan talks about turnout times, if the busier stations are full time that solves that problem. If you genuinely believe that any other party has anything different to offer than look at European politics for the last 100 years. It’s all the same, campaign in poetry and govern in prose.
I dont understand how they expect part time firefighters to get a second job when they are constantly on call. Who in their right mind would hire them. Maybe they should be guaranteed the option of a local council/government job when they join the fire service so they have a steady income they can rely on as well as being able to drop and go when on call?
How about a poll on public support for these brave people? I’d say it would be overwhelming in favour
have your say