‘Our firefighters feel insulted’: Firies walk off the job in pay rise stoush
Firefighters walked off the job for an hour today, with more industrial action on the way, after wage negotiations soured last week.
NSW
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More than 30 firefighters walked off the job on Monday afternoon, in the latest industrial action dispute to plague the Minns government after pay rise negotiations soured last week.
Eight fire trucks were pulled from active duty for an hour on Monday afternoon and parked outside NSW parliament, with the fireys union warning industrial action would continue until a wage deal was struck.
Fire Brigade Employees Union NSW secretary Leighton Drury said the Minns government had failed to give firefighters any wage offer at all despite the current award expiring on Sunday.
“We’re happy to look at any offer the government puts on the table, so we can at least start negotiating,’ he said.
“Our firefighters feel insulted, they feel like they’re not being taken seriously … we need to get the government to the table to give us an offer.”
The union will look to double the number of firefighters and fire trucks pulled from service next week until the government puts an offer on the table. Firefighters are currently asking for a 20 per cent increase over three years.
Mr Drury said the award for firefighters in NSW was not competitive with those from some other states.
“We’re seeing retention and recruitment problems … we went from 8000 applications two years ago down to 3000 this year so we certainly don’t want to see this trend continue,” he said.
“Most firefighters now have to live outside of Sydney because it’s way too expensive for firefighters to live in.”
Premier Chris Minns acknowledged the union was unhappy and that there had yet to be an agreement despite multiple meetings in the past few weeks.
“I can’t promise it’s going to be wrapped up quickly,” he said.
“We don’t have an agreement today and I understand they’re unhappy about that, but it’s a process … I have faith the government will get a good resolution.”
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