Dublin firefighters are to ballot next week on the proposals agreed early yesterday morning to avert a national strike. Meanwhile a meeting of the new partnership committee for the Dublin Fire Brigade is to take place today with the assistance of the Irish Productivity Centre to improve internal relations within the service.
The firefighters' unions, SIPTU and IMPACT, agreed a 13-point productivity deal to maintain their pay parity with the Garda. The firefighters, who earn an average of £30,500 a year, will receive increases worth £2,900 a year and back money of £8,000.
Ten of the productivity measures had been agreed in principle at the Labour Court. These include the co-operation of the firefighters in the amalgamation of the Dublin and Dun Laoghaire fire services, their acceptance of liability for after hours emergency calls from the three Dublin county councils, the provision of control room facilities for the Meath and Laois fire services, and agreement to emergency medical training.
Ambulance crews have agreed to operate defibrillators for cardiac patients and firefighting crews are already providing backup to the Irish Emergency Rescue Service up to 250 miles out to sea. On the organisational side, the unions have agreed to the transfer of personnel between fire stations, to provide a better balance of skills. Pay Path is to be introduced and there is to be a review of the accident sick scheme under which firefighters injured at work receive a higher rate of sick pay than they would if ill for other reasons. The three concessions agreed in direct talks with the corporation early yesterday morning include co-operation with new technology, the introduction of the ISO 9002 quality mark for the ambulance service and acceptance of liability for full working shifts at the weekends. Traditionally firefighters on call after 1 p.m. on Saturday and all day Sunday were not required to perform routine station duties.
Union and management representatives are to meet today to agree the final text of the agreement so that it can be balloted on by about 850 firefighters. The unions are recommending acceptance. The partnership committee is to operate in tandem with the introduction of the new productivity measures under the chairmanship of Mr Declan Dukes, of the Irish Productivity Centre. One of the first items on the committee's agenda is a report on internal relations within the fire service. This found that 81 per cent of employees had a strong sense of pride in the organisation but 74 per cent believed it was dominated by "cliques and cabals".
Mr Dukes said that the committee aimed to make relations between members of the fire brigade as good as those firefighters enjoy with the general public. Jim Cusack writes: The Chief of Staff of the Defence Forces has, for the first time, publicly rebuked the staff association representing almost 10,000 soldiers for claiming the Army was not capable of providing an emergency service in the event of a strike by civilian fire and ambulance crews.
In a statement yesterday, Lt Gen Dave Stapleton said the claim by the Permanent Defence Forces Other Ranks Representative Association (PDFORRA) caused "unnecessary alarm" and created a negative image of the Defence Forces.
Lt Gen Stapleton said the PDFORRA statement two weeks ago was to be "deplored".
This is the first time since the representative association was set up nine years ago that a chief of staff has issued such a public rebuke. Senior military figures were said to be furious when PDFORRA issued a statement two weeks ago stating that the Defence Forces was not capable of providing an emergency service.