Today FENZ filed an urgent application in the Employment Relations Authority as its latest salvo against the NZPFU and its members.

We deny the allegations and the legal action will be defended.

Contrary to the allegations, career firefighters and volunteer firefighters have a strong working relationship and we will continue to foster that relationship.

We believe this legal action is a reflection of FENZ’s increasing frustration with the support many volunteers have articulated or demonstrated in many ways since NZPFU members began taking strike action. FENZ immediately issued a public statement across the organisation and to media about their legal action and that behaviour supports our belief that their end goal is to try and portray conflict and friction when the reality is a camaraderie in their dedication to serving and protecting the public.

The volunteers are facing many of the same issues that the NZPFU is fighting for and have voiced their frustration that it appears only the NZPFU are fighting against FENZ’s mismanagement of critical funding.

FENZ is using every tactic it can muster, but our members will continue to act in a professional way and continue to foster the good working relationships with volunteers.

It is FENZ management that are attempting to intimidate volunteers. In the NZPFU bargaining dispute in 2022 FENZ threatened volunteers with disciplinary action if they spoke out about the issues they were facing which ran parallel with issues the NZPFU membership was raising, including unsafe and unreliable fire appliances.

In unity,
Wattie Watson
NZPFU National Secretary