50% of firefighters begin industrial action over pay conditions

Kenneth Fox

Almost 50 per cent of firefighters will engage in work stoppages on Tuesday to protest at what they say are unfair and unmanageable pay and conditions.

Gerrard O’Donovan, a firefighter with Bantry fire station in West Cork, said firefighters have been “backed into a corner” by the Government’s continued refusal to enter discussions about pay.

As the Irish Examiner reports, the annual €8,500 retainer which retained firefighters are paid has not been increased for many years despite inflation and increasing demands of the job.

Unless pay and conditions are improved, firefighters fear that no one will enter and stay in the fire service. Many stations are finding it increasingly difficult to recruit and retain staff. Mr O’Donovan said:

"We don’t want to let people down, but we feel our hands are tied. And we feel forced into the next level of strike.

“It’s not something we’re comfortable with but if nothing is done and nothing changes we won’t have a fire service. We are bleeding out.”

Of some 3,000 firefighters employed nationally, some 2,000 are retained, part-time firefighters.

In Cork, all but the city’s fire stations are operated on a retained part-time service.

Unlike full-time firefighters who are paid a wage and accrue benefits such as holiday pay, retained firefighters are paid a retainer of some €8,500 annually to be on call. They are additionally paid per call-out.

Mr O’Donovan met with his station crew on Monday night to discuss the imminent industrial action, and they decided that, for any calls where life is in danger, firefighters taking part in the stoppages will still respond.

“We’re rurally located. We cover a big area, but it’s a small population and we know everyone.

"The people who are calling us are our family, our friends our community. Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday we are now rostered as ‘off’ [for the work stoppage] but if there is a life-threatening incident we will respond."