The Retained Firefighters are to suspend Industrial Action from noon today following a breakthrough in talks at the Work Place Relations Commission. Talks continued until mid-night last night and a proposal is now to be presented to the Firefighters and put to a ballot later this month or in early September.
The proposal includes a substantial improvement on basic pay, and a commitment to address other issues raised during the dispute including recruitment and rostering.
The deal sees the guaranteed element of pay for new entrants almost doubled to provide a minimum of guaranteed earnings. A new entrant will be guaranteed to earn €18,500 in their first year and a shorter incremental scale will be in place. Existing staff will also benefit from the changes. In addition, firefighters will earn additional income from call outs and other work in pre incident planning and community engagement. Going forward the employer will now cover the cost of obtaining a C Licence which costs approximately €2,500.
Further issues such as Local Authority hiring policies and the retirement age are to be discussed in the weeks ahead. The pay issue will also be considered in the upcoming national negotiations for a new Public Sector Pay Deal.
Tipperary town Retained Firefighter Pat Flanagan welcomed the news saying “it is progress but we need to see the details – we hope it is a big step forward.”
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