Members will be aware that Fire Hazard Assessment is a new requirement under the FENZ Act 2017.

There have been many meetings around this process and strong concerns voiced as to who will do this work.

The NZPFU have been made aware of attempts to have as a minimum Fire Risk Management Officers attend training on “Fire Hazard Assessment Learning”.

As far back as May 2017 the NZPFU and PSA expressed concerns to the then NZFS Management that any such new work was unacceptable with the current resourcing and capacity of the existing FRMO numbers and that any such new work whether or not impacting on operational or the FRMO staff would not be undertaken until the appropriate consultation and agreements had been reached with the affected workers bargaining agents.

The then Deputy National Commander said in relationship to this and other new roles:

The introduction of the remaining powers is an exercise we will develop in consultation with the unions. We are moving into areas we have not been before - we need to make sure we get it right, and that the impact on all affected staff is properly identified and managed.

This consultation hasn’t happened.

In a more recent Integration meeting specifically around Fire Hazard Removal, senior FENZ Managers were advised that if they had made an assumption that operational and FRMO staff were just going to pick this role up, that they had assumed incorrectly, with their response being that they would need to talk to the Unions before this was attempted to be implemented, this hasn’t happened either.

The NZPFU is aware and has agreed that some FRMO in Christchurch may undertake this training and work in a trial to attempt to gauge the extent the impact of this new work will have, Christchurch is therefore ring fenced and won’t be subjected to this recommendation, however if any NZPFU member does not wish to participate in this trial, they will not be forced to do so.

The NZPFU have recently met with senior FENZ management and have agreement from them that this training should not be conducted and the role not be performed by FRMO or operational staff covered by the NZPFU Collective Bargaining Agreementuntil an appropriate level of consultation is undertaken with Unions, members and agreement reached.

The NZPFU will advise members when consultation on this matter takes place and what any of the proposed outcomes may be.