Tipperary County council has outlined details of contingency measures due to industrial action on the part of Retained Fire Fighter. The action began today with SIPTU members refusing to participate in training drills.
This action may escalate to be followed by rolling strikes on the 13th of June, and all out strikes on the 20th of June if there is no agreement between SIPTU and the Local Government Management Agency(LGMA).
The Government has accepted the recommendations of a review to address the current recruitment and retention crisis in the Retained Fire Service however the LGMA is not able to make a deal with the SIPTU negotiators.
Tipperary County Council says following dialogue with SIPTU at local level robust contingency arrangements have been put in place which will be kept under review throughout this dispute.
SIPTU have confirmed that throughout the strike action it will comply with the provisions of the Code of Practice on emergency disputes, reflecting the professionalism and dedication of the retained fire service personnel, to ensure that fire services are provided throughout this industrial action.
They have also confirmed that they will continue to respond to all emergency calls involving life-threatening situations.
Tipperary County Council says it’s priority throughout this process is to ensure employee and public safety and every effort will be made to mitigate any risk to Council employees and the public arising from this industrial action.
The council is also advising the public, households and businesses to ensure that they have working smoke alarms and that they should continue to call 112 or 999 in the case of an emergency.
All twelve of Tipperary’s Fire Stations are staffed by Retained Firefighters – staff that are trained and paid a retainer for their Fire Service work but most are working other full time jobs.
Retained firefighters in Tipperary and across the country have begun a campaign of industrial action.
Today is the first of three planned days of action that may lead to an all out strike on June 20th.
Today the retained firefighters, represented by SIPTU, are engaging in a campaign of non-cooperation with work outside of responding to emergency calls.
Personnel will not participate in training exercises today, calls to fire stations will be processed by fire service management rather than by radio.
The next day of action is June 13th which will see a series of one-day work stoppages at 50% of fire stations at any given time.
The Union members voted for industrial action last January. Talks to agree the implementation of recommendations from a Government Review to address the recruitment and retention crisis ended last week without agreement.
Tipperary town station is short staffed and can only send out one of the two fire tenders at this disposal when responding to calls. It is supported by a fire tender from another station when more than one unit is required to respond to an emergency.
