RETAINED FIREFIGHTERS WILL return to normal work duties at midday after “progress was made” at talks at the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) last night, a Siptu organiser has said.

The 2,000-strong part-time fire service, which provides fire and first responder emergency services, had been engaged in industrial action for over two months due to staffing numbers and a dispute over pay. 

Many firefighters are unable to take annual leave due to staffing shortages and they have also seen their incomes reduced due to reductions in call outs over the last number of years, the union stated.

🚨 Important #FireStrikes update

Talks concluded overnight at the Workplace Relations Commission.

While we await the WRC document we have agreed to suspend industrial action from midday.

A full statement and an update to members will issue later today. pic.twitter.com/qlFSpFO1MV

— SIPTU (@SIPTU) August 17, 2023

Siptu divisional organiser Karan O’Loughlin said in a video this morning that there had been “progress” on issues of pay at the WRC last night, with talks continuing into the early morning.

“It didn’t tick all the boxes or deliver everything we wanted but we have made progress on the guaranteed pay side and managed to knit more value into the system,” she said.

O’Loughlin didn’t specify the details of the talks but said that a statement would be made public later today.

She added that the WRC would issue a “complex” document outlining the changes to pay which Siptu would have in the coming days.

“To enable them to issue the document we have to suspend the industrial action from midday tomorrow,” she said.

“So that means from midday tomorrow, people will start to work as normal in terms of fire calls and you should then start to make arrangements to recommence drills, training and station duties from next Monday.”

“We go then for the next phase of the campaign which is during and after the Public Service Pay talks, where we expect that the public service pay increases will be applied, and the retainer will be again dealt with for a second time,” O’Loughlin said.

“So those assurances are part of what will come out in the document and you’ll have something from me tomorrow on paper,” she said, addressing retained firefighters.

Earlier this week, Minister for Housing and Local Government Darragh O’Brien issued a letter to Siptu in which he said that industrial action which had been planned for this weekend would be “highly unsafe”.

In the letter, which was seen by The Journal,  the minister said that there had been a  50% reduction in fire cover across the country during last weekend and that “the situation is highly unsafe for firefighters and is posing a severe threat to public safety”.