Tipperary Retained Firefighters, alongside the country’s approximately 2,000 Retained Firefighters, have paused their industrial action to enable talks to begin at the Labour Court today.
The Court invited SIPTU representatives for exploratory discussions in relation to the Retained fire service dispute which was due to escalate into an all-out strike tomorrow.
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.
The SIPTU National Committee for Retained Firefighters unanimously agreed to suspend all industrial action and strike action for a period of 24 hours in order to facilitate the explanatory discussions at the Labour Court.
The union says it welcomes the intervention of the Labour Court but warns that the resolution to this dispute will be “complex and difficult.”
SIPTU Sector Organiser Brendan O’Brien, says “it is imperative that the employers attend this meeting with a willingness to engage in a manner that they have not done to date.”
Mr O’Brien says there must be a willingness to acknowledge that resources are required to rebuild the Retained Fire Service alongside “proper remuneration of firefighters to reflect the responsibilities of their job.”
