Further to Newsletter No.37 the Union can report that negotiations for the renewal of the Collective Agreement have ceased. The Union National Committee met to discuss the Fire Service’s final offer. As mentioned in the Newsletter the Committee will be bringing the offer out to members at local meetings for ballot.

The Union bargaining team met for the last time on October 1st. At that meeting the Union insisted and the Fire Service assured that the final offer received was the very best offer that the Fire Service could give at this time.

The Union considers that the offer is too late, that is - the offer contains no back pay whatsoever and that means that on top of a 21 month period without a pay increase the Fire Service is still unable to back pay this offer at all. The increases are from the date of settlement if and when that occurs.

The Union considers that the offer is too little, that is - the offer of 1.3% for the first 8 months or so, and then a further offer of 1.5% for another year, and even in the recessionary times that we had over the past year, that is not enough. Added to that there are changes to the CEA that the Fire Service requires as well.

The Union considers that the offer is too long, that is - the offer runs for 2 ½ years from the expiry of the current CEA. In times when many commentators are saying that the recession has ended, why would the Union lock in such low rates of increase for such a long time?

As noted in the previous Newsletter the Union Committee recommends that the offer be rejected.

The full offer including the altered clauses is herewith for members’ information.