Updated: 4.30pm
Retained firefighters are scheduled to escalate industrial action tomorrow in their campaign for better pay and better work-life balance.
Phase 2 of the action will see rolling work stoppages at Donegal’s 15 fire stations from Tuesday 13th June. All 15 fire brigades in Donegal are crewed by retained firefighters and during the period of strikes, 5 of the 15 brigades will be on strike each day.
Approximately 2,000 SIPTU members who work as retained firefighters are calling on the government to make plans to solve the recruitment and retention crisis that threatens to collapse the service.
Retained firefighters are not full-time employees and are instead paid a retainer to be on call for fire stations.
One retained firefighter in Donegal who has been part of the emergency services for five years shared their experience: “We were called to a serious incident from our alerters went off to we returned back to our home station and cleaned all of our PPE and equipment made ready for the next call, we were away a total of 26 hours and as soon as the call for closed down we were immediately back on call again.
“No rest time / no time off. Health and safety doesn’t exist!!
“Imagine something happening to firefighters due to fatigue while at work.”
The firefighter shared the above account with the National Retained Firefighters Association of Ireland.
The first phase of industrial action which launched last week involved non-cooperation with training, drills and radio calls through the emergency centres being replaced by the use of mobile calls to fire service management.
If dialogue isn’t held, retained firefighters are planning to further escalate their industrial action to all-out strike action, which will close every retained fire station in the country, from Monday, 20th June.
In a statement, Donegal County Council said its priority during the strikes is to ensure public safety.
A spokesperson said: “Householders should ensure that they have working smoke alarms fitted and that they are checked weekly. Business owners should ensure that they have a functioning fire detection and alarm system fitted and that it is within its service schedule.”
Requests for fire brigade assistance should continue to be made as normal by dialling 999 or 112
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