The NZPFU National Committee and Local Secretaries have been discussing the appropriate ballots that should be put to members in the upcoming NZPFU membership meetings.
Attached is the disrespectful offer made by FENZ in bargaining last week. Members will be balloted on the offer only at membership meetings (listed below). Other ballots will also be put to members.
- The offer is less than the 2.4% increase handed to all non-NZPFU members from 1 July 2026 based on “market rate”.
- In bargaining, FENZ had no answer as to why Senior leadership are devaluing and disrespecting NZPFU members (including some doing the same job as others on higher wages) purely because of their union affiliation. For more information on the bargaining click here.
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The offer is designed to ensure that NZPFU members' wage increases fall behind anyone else in the organisation, including those doing the
same work as non-union or other union members.
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The offer does nothing to recognise that NZPFU members have not had a pay increase since 2023. Others have had two increases in that time.
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The offer does nothing to address the systemic issue of the firefighters’ wage structure, which does not recognise their training,
qualifications, experience, responsibilities, seriousness of decisions, and the known risks to their health, safety, and wellbeing. The
lowest ranks of firefighters are barely paid the minimum wage and are not paid the living wage. Non-operational roles, including
contractors, are paid significantly higher without the responsibilities.
The offer does nothing to restore and protect safe systems of work
Do not be fooled by the “commitment to taskforces” in the offer, which includes a taskforce on “policy and processes to address increasing overtime trend”. That work has already been done – it was the work of the previous Staffing Working Party that determined the uplift in the ratio of firefighters was needed to reduce overtime while maintaining safe systems of work.
When the NZPFU and FENZ commenced bargaining in 2024, FENZ had not reneged on its agreement in principle to increase the number of firefighters by 235 to ensure the maintenance of minimum crewing. The then National Commander Russell Wood confirmed that the Board had asked for an implementation plan for the uplift of the ratio of firefighters from 4.5 to 5.1.
The ratio had been determined as a result of a joint working party agreed in the 2022 settlement.
Then in September 2024, the NZPFU became aware that FENZ had commissioned a benchmarking exercise between FENZ and the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service.
The NZPFU questioned the motive for doing so and the implications for safe systems of work. CE Kerry Gregory and National Commander Russell Wood engaged with the National Committee and denied there was any intention to downgrade response and undermine current safe systems of work. For the background on that issue go to the October 2024 National Notice.
Auckland District Management, with the knowledge of DCE People Janine Hearn, and with the cooperation of the Auckland Local, implemented a relief roster to implement the uplift in ratio to address the regular and serious failures to maintain minimum staffing, which had seen trucks offline, riding short, and stations closing purely because of insufficient staffing.
Then in 2025, with the arrival of Deputy National Commander Megan Stiffler, the progress to implement the uplift stalled and now FENZ is reneging. FENZ is currently driving down the number of firefighters in Auckland, determined to dismantle the relief roster. This is a direct attack on safe systems of work and is already resulting in trucks riding short or offline due to the lack of staffing. This directly affects the community, as the necessary appliances and firefighters are not there to respond and will have to come from other stations further away.
This year, Deputy National Commander Megan Stiffler issued a draft policy to remove the current Local callout processes. If enforced, this will result in devastating consequences for the Locals/communities that rely heavily on off-duty firefighters to come back to staff a second appliance, or to respond to calls while the first crew is responding elsewhere. The callback system is the cheapest way to ensure continuity of emergency response and without it there will be significant delays in response. The likely outcome is that people will die who might not otherwise have perished had the crew been on station to respond.
The offer includes attacks on current terms and conditions including the current occupational cancer screening programme
Health Monitoring
The 2022 settlement included an agreement for reimbursement of costs for a health screening programme for the early detection of occupational diseases, and in particular occupational cancer.
The NZPFU had worked with international firefighter unions and medical practitioners to develop a comprehensive and effective programme.
The NZPFU Locals then worked hard to find medical practitioners in their areas to undertake the testing, provide the results, and support our members through that confidential process. The programme ensures that the member is being tested at least every two years, preferably every year, so that their results can be compared with their baseline tests to detect any change, even the slightest of changes. This programme has resulted in early detection for many of our members and saved lives.
All FENZ had to do was to organise the same programme for the recruits at NTC. The programme is at its most effective when the baseline testing is prior to the exposures of the incident ground.
Nearly 4 years later and FENZ has not managed to organise the testing for one recruit!
FENZ has now initiated a “health monitoring programme”, and as outlined in this offer they want a sunset clause on the NZPFU programme and reimbursement.
Do not be fooled by the language and the increase in the reimbursement. If FENZ has control of the health monitoring programme, they will have full control to change, undermine, reduce, or collapse the current testing regime, including the breadth of testing. Further, in the past, FENZ-controlled health testing has resulted in serious breaches of privacy – including firefighters being taken off the trucks.
This decision to have its own health monitoring programme has come at a time when the number of medical reviews is increasing and they are being used to sack firefighters.
The NZPFU believes a voluntary health monitoring programme should be developed for other groups of workers, including dispatchers. But it would require the involvement of experts and specialists to determine what is needed and how it should be implemented. FENZ has not provided any budget for this to occur, and we are deeply concerned about FENZ’s intentions.
For more about the Union's concerns click here.
Income Protection Insurance
This year the insurer notified the Union that the income protection insurance premium would have to increase, or changes would need to be made to the policy.
The NZPFU notified FENZ and sought to have FENZ engage on the issue and the options.
FENZ chose not to, insisting that the matter had to be part of bargaining because the NZPFU had a claim to update the Income Protection Clause (as FENZ now pays the premiums directly to the insurer) including providing for increases in premiums.
We sought urgency to do so, but it did not eventuate, with the bargaining only occurring last week. That was too late and as a result, the policy had to change.
The offer includes a clause that FENZ did not follow this year, so do not have any faith in any genuine intention to protect the integrity of the income protection insurance.
For more information on the changes to the income protection policy click here.
NZPFU MEETINGS
The NZPFU will be holding a national round of meetings with members as detailed below. The meetings have been arranged so that the relevant National Committee members can attend each meeting.
FENZ has been notified in accordance with the Employment Relations Act 2000 that these are section 26 meetings, which can be up to 2 hours duration, and the employer must allow union members to attend on pay if they would otherwise be working during this time. The Locals are asked to work with relevant FENZ management to make the appropriate arrangements for availability for the meetings.
NZPFU Members are urged to attend and to come prepared to vote on the FENZ offer (which will be distributed to all members when the formal documentation is received from FENZ) and other ballots the National Committee thinks necessary, which may include further strike action. Please bring a pen to vote.
NZPFU MEMBERSHIP MEETINGS
| 18th October, Sunday | 1700 | Whangarei Station |
| 19th October, Monday | 0900 | Papatoetoe Station |
| 1400 | Avondale Station | |
| 1900 | Albany Station | |
| 20th October, Tuesday | 0900 | Albany Station |
| 1400 | Avondale Station | |
| 1900 | Papatoetoe Station | |
| 21st October, Wednesday | 1030 | Hamilton Station |
| 1600 | Tauranga - Tauranga Rowing Club | |
| 22nd October, Thursday | 0900 | Kawerau Station |
| 1200 | Rotorua | |
| 1500 | Taupo | |
| 23rd October, Friday | 1000 | Wellington - Paremata Rugby Club, Porirua |
| 1400 | Wellington - Remutaka Fire Station | |
| 27 October, Tuesday | 0900 | Christchurch |
| 1500 | Timaru | |
| 28 October, Wednesday | 0900 | Dunedin |
| 1700 | Invercargill | |
| 29 October, Thursday | 1000 | Nelson |
| 30 October, Friday | 0900 | Masterton |
| 1 November, Sunday | 1700 | Gisborne |
| 2 November, Monday | 1300 | Hawkes Bay - Pakowhai Hall, Pakowhai Road, Hastings |
| 1800 | Palmerston North | |
| 3 November, Tuesday | 1000 | Whanganui |
| 1500 | New Plymouth |
In unity,
Wattie Watson
National Secretary
