Labour Court writes to unions to prevent all-out fire service strike on Tuesday

The Labour Court has written to union representatives to prevent a strike that would see the closure of all fire stations in Ireland on Tuesday.

Siptu (Services, Industrial, Professional and Technical Union) representatives, who negotiate for fire service members, were invited to exploratory discussions in relation to the retained fire service dispute in Dublin on Monday June 19.

The Labour Court has separately written to the Local Government Management Association (LGMA), as the employer in the dispute, requesting its attendance at the talks.

Industrial action during the week saw up to half of the fire stations in the service close.

There are approximately 2,000 Siptu members who work as retained firefighters at more than 200 fire stations around the country, providing fire and first-responder emergency services as well as a per-callout fee.

Retained firefighters are not full-time employees and are instead paid a retainer to be on call for fire stations.

Siptu members had threatened an all-out strike on Tuesday June 20 if their concerns surrounding recruitment and retention in the service were not addressed.

Siptu public administration and community division organiser Karan O Loughlin said industrial action would be suspended to facilitate talks.

“The Siptu national committee for retained firefighters today unanimously agreed to suspend all industrial action and strike action for a period of 24 hours commencing at 12.01 am on Monday in order to facilitate the explanatory discussions at the Labour Court.”

She added: “While our members appreciate the intervention of the court in this matter, the resolution to this dispute will be complex and difficult.

“However, the Siptu negotiating committee have agreed to attend and will make every effort to create the space for a resolution to this dispute.”

Siptu sector organiser Brendan O’Brien said the attitude of the LGMA would have to be different than that of prior negotiations.

“The Siptu negotiating committee will do their utmost on Monday but it is imperative that the employers attend this meeting with a willingness to engage in a manner that they have not done to date,” he said.

“There must be a willingness to acknowledge that there needs to be resources put into the retained fire service in order to commence its rebuilding.

“There must also be proper remuneration of firefighters to reflect the responsibilities of their job.”

In the Dail on Thursday, Minister Darragh O’Brien was given an alerter device used by on-call firefighters by Sinn Fein TD John Brady, supporting their industrial action, in a move described as a “stunt” and an “act of theatre”.