Members will no doubt have heard that this past Saturday we had three appliances K0 and one appliance riding short crewed.

Members and Management must know it is imperative that Minimum Shift Manning is maintained as this is a fundamental key safety factor for our members and the public.

Management needs to work with the NZPFU to help address this problem, and to that end a range of options will be discussed with them at high levels, including:

• Temporary easing of the Fatigue Management Policy in emergency situations to allow those that want to work, the ability to do so (providing a pre-set range of conditions are met)
• Effective management of discretionary leave by Area Management
• Increasing establishment levels in Auckland to cover the increased discretionary leave entitlements
• Possible changes to travel claims and entitlements to help incentivise work at stations that are not your home station
• Ensure that vacancies are gazetted on a more frequent basis

Some of these solutions are obviously long term, however, some are fairly easy to implement with the agreement and assistance of FENZ.

We will be meeting Regional and District Management on Friday and will report back once the talks have been undertaken and any agreement with FENZ on the above points has been reached.