Part-time firefighters are this week voting on whether to accept Labour Court recommendations on their campaign to end the mandatory retirement age of 55, common in many local authorities, or to take industrial action on the matter.
The results of the ballot of the 1,800 retained or part-time firefighters members of the union, SIPTU, will be known early next week. However, according to Mr Matt Merrigan of SIPTU, it is expected they will vote for the industrial action.
Members are being asked if they favour acceptance of the Labour Court recommendations or if they they favour handing back their "alerter" or bleeper to the relevant authority which employs them.
Local authorities have already been informed of the ballot. If the vote is to hand back the bleeper, all fire-services outside the major cities throughout the Republic will be affected, probably from November.
The Labour Court had recommended the setting up of an expert working group to report back within 12 months. The need to maintain a blanket retirement age of 55 from a health and safety perspective should be objectively assessed by the parties with the assistance of suitable experts, the Labour Court noted. Any resolution of the dispute cannot be on terms contrary to domestic or EU legislation, the Court advised.
The legislation for a blanket ban on firefighters after the age of 55 is in force in a number of local authorities. Only those promoted to grades above the rank of firefighter to sub-officer, station officer, district officer and so on, can avoid it.
The campaign to seek a change in the regulations is tied to the issue of pensions. A firefighter had to have 30 years service to claim full pension, but since he or she might only have joined at the age of 30 or 35, it cut down on pension rights if forced to retire at 55, Mr Brian Murray chairman of the national firefighters committee of full-time firefighters explained.
Many of the Republic's 1,100 full-time firefighters are also affected by the over-55 ban. These have now set up a sub-committee to have the matter reviewed, Mr Murray said.
The issue of alerters does not affect the full-time firefighters as these are called out directly from their fire station.