NZPFU WILL GIVE NOTICE OF FOUR 10-HOUR STRIKES SHORTLY

NZPFU members have sent a clear message to FENZ and the incoming Government – the NZPFU members are standing strong in rejecting the disgraceful offer made by FENZ and have voted to walk off the job for 10 hours at a time to get a fair and reasonable deal.

Fantastic turnouts saw approximately 70% of all eligible NZPFU members attending 25 meetings from Whangārei to Invercargill over the past three weeks.

• 99% rejected the FENZ October offer of 2.2%
  
• 99% have no confidence in the FENZ Board or Executive Leadership Team
  
• 93% agreed to withdraw from all international USAR deployments
  
• 88% agreed to 10-hour strikes in the period from 25 November to 25 December 2026
  

The NZPFU will be giving notice of four 10-hour strikes shortly.

This will be unprecedented national industrial action where NZPFU members have voted to walk off the job for 10 hours at a time.

This is a necessary escalation of industrial action.

The NZPFU has held 72 one-hour strikes since October 2025. The NZPFU membership were convinced there is no option but to escalate, as FENZ has demonstrated it does not have the desire, or the competency, to settle the collective agreement negotiations.

• NZPFU members have not had a pay increase since July 2023.
  
• FENZ CE Kerry Gregory resigned under pressure after the Minister declared she had no confidence in him.
  
• In June, former Board Chair Rebecca Keoghan was replaced by Raveen Jaduram.
  
• The Minister has also written to the FENZ Board stating she has concerns about the competency of FENZ’s executive leadership team, who are Deputy Chief Executive Operational Response Megan Stiffler, Deputy Chief Executive People Janine Hearn, Deputy Chief Executive Corporate Services Darryl Purdy, Deputy Chief Executive Prevention Stephen Hunt, and the Acting Deputy Chief Executive Asset and Programme Delivery of Fire and Emergency New Zealand, Jim Stuart-Black.
  
• During the Parliamentary Select Committee Inquiry into the management of FENZ’s fleet and other issues, former DCE Assets Sarah Sinclair left the building, followed by the sudden departure of Fleet Manager Mike Moran.
  
• The Parliamentary Committee Report was damning of FENZ Leadership for repeatedly providing “deliberately misleading” information, spending $90,000 on consultants to provide some of that information, spending nearly $400,000 on lobbyists and lawyers for the inquiry, and for failing in their duties resulting in the dire state of the fire appliances. The Report vindicated what NZPFU members and others had been saying for years. The Parliamentary Report exposed the dishonesty and incompetency of senior supposed leaders.
  
• The “new” appliances with 7-year-old chassis have not had a clean run into commission, with FENZ failing to have comprehensive acceptance testing, and faults—some serious—delaying some into commission and sending others to the workshops shortly after commissioning.
  

The NZPFU is calling on the new Government to step in, as FENZ cannot be trusted to negotiate with the NZPFU to reach a fair and reasonable settlement.

• Former CE Kerry Gregory wrote to NZPFU in March 2026 stating they were working up a new offer. That offer was never provided or presented.
  
• On 1 October, FENZ did not even have its bargaining team at the table. DCE People Janine Hearn, who has had the responsibility of bargaining from August 2024, did not even bother to turn up. Instead, FENZ Workplace Relations Manager Paul Stowers (who FENZ had previously said would not be part of their bargaining team) turned up to read from a document that he knew little about. He presented an offer of 2.2%, no backpay, and fish-hooks in other terms that include an attack on the NZPFU’s life-saving occupational cancer blood-testing regime. Paul was unable to answer why all non-NZPFU members had been awarded a “market rate” increase of 2.4% in July, and in October NZPFU members (some doing the same jobs as the non-NZPFU members) were only being offered 2.2%.
  

FENZ’s attitude on October 1 and in a range of attacks on emergency response and NZPFU members confirms for the NZPFU that FENZ has no intention of bargaining in good faith to reach a fair and reasonable settlement.

Overwhelmingly, the NZPFU membership have no trust or confidence in FENZ to use its resources to ensure FENZ has the necessary capability and capacity to meet its obligations under the FENZ Act.

The 10-hour strikes will have a significant impact on New Zealand communities.

But they can be prevented.

The power will be in the hands of the incoming Government or those negotiating a coalition. If they meet with the NZPFU and agree to who needs to be in the room with access to additional funding to settle the collective agreement, then the strikes will be called off. If they don’t, then New Zealand will face 10-hour strikes where there are no career firefighters or 111 emergency dispatch centre call-takers or dispatchers.

The NZPFU does not think there is one MP in NZ now that has any faith in the FENZ leadership or their competency.

FENZ has proven to the Union time and time again they cannot be trusted.

As in 2022, we need others in the room to hold FENZ to account. We would never have settled in 2022 without the support of the Government, which forced FENZ to reach a settlement.

The FENZ senior Leadership are an epic failure in the eyes of NZPFU members – it is time for them to go!

In unity,
Wattie Watson
National Secretary