RETAINED FIREFIGHTERS ARE set to escalate their strike action which has come about due to staffing concerns.

The Retained Fire Service is a 2,000 strong part-time workforce that provides fire and first responder emergency services across the country.

Siptu members employed as Retained Fire Services firefighters have been engaged in industrial action in recent weeks due to what the trade union describes as a “staffing crisis which threatens this vital community resource”.

The Siptu National Retained Fire Fighter Committee today confirmed that union members will “go dark” on Saturday morning after what it describes as a “failure of government to respond to their legitimate concerns”.

Siptu’s community division organiser Karan O’Loughlin today noted that it’s been “nine weeks since this industrial action commenced”.

She claimed that the “silence from government has been astonishing” and added: “It has abandoned the retained fire service, leaving fire fighters at the side of the road in an effort to break their dispute.”

O’Loughlin said the retained fire service is “steadfast in their belief that the service will collapse if adequate measures are not taken to address the current recruitment and retention crisis”.

She added that the “dispute will continue until this happens”.

Today, the National Retained Fire Fighter Committee agreed that as of 8.00am this coming Saturday, all stations will “go dark and will have no internal communications with management other than life saving information”.

This is in addition to strike action that was resumed last month when retained firefighters voted by an overwhelming majority to reject Labour Court recommendations.

O’Loughlin warned that if the escalation doesn’t “encourage management back to the table” then on the following Saturday, 19 August, “an additional station will close each week in each county”.

“Stations around the country are already closed 50% of the time because of the refusal by management to agree adequate cover arrangements with fire fighters,” said O’Loughlin, “and because many of them don’t have enough staff to respond to calls.”

In a statement to The Journal, Michael Farrell, a firefighter based in Ballymahon, Co Longford said: “There’s a feeling that we don’t have any choice, but at the moment there’s still support for us in the local community.

“The purpose of the escalation is to bring management back to the table. We have no desire or intention to put anyone at risk, and I think our communities know that.”

‘No option’

Sinn Féin’s spokesperson on workers’ rights, TD Louise O’Reilly, said today’s decision to escalate industrial action is a “direct result of Minister Darragh O’Brien missing in action”.

“They (retained firefighters) feel they have no option to escalate industrial action and this is a direct result of Minister Darragh O’Brien missing in action,” said O’Reilly.

She added that “it is time now for him to intervene and bring a resolution to this dispute”.

“Retained firefighters are expected to be on call 24/7, 351 days of the year and to remain within a few kilometres of their local fire station,” said O’Reilly.

“All for a salary of 99 cent an hour for cover.”

The Sinn Féin TD said that “firefighters should not be forced out onto a picket line” and that “they deserve decent terms and conditions”.

“They, and our communities, deserve to be safe,” added O’Reilly.

She accused Minister O’Brien of “running away from his responsibilities” and called on him to “work with the retained firefighters to bring about a just and fair resolution to this industrial dispute”.

-With additional reporting from Steven Fox