'We plan to picket as long as this takes,' say Carrigaline retained firefighters

Industrial action began on 6 June and the dispute continues this week.

Retained firefighters in Cork remain on the picket lines as their dispute over pay continues this week. Pickets have been placed at retained fire stations across the country, but members will respond to life-threatening emergency calls.

The retained service are part-time firefighters who are paid an annual retainer for being on-call.

The Labour Court recommended that the retainer be increased by between 24% and 32.7%, however, this was rejected by firefighters, and strike action resumed. The spokesperson for Carrigaline Fire and Rescue, which is a retained station, spoke to the Cork Independent about the dispute.

“Our pay just isn't good enough for the current economy the way it is,” he said. “We need our retainer to go from €0.99 to at least double that in order to function properly. We get €0.99 an hour for having our pager on us 24/7, for 365 days of the year. That's our guaranteed retainer income. We do get paid extra per callout but we are not guaranteed those calls,” he explained.

The spokesperson said industrial action began on 6 June. “We had to pause the strikes when the case went to the Labour Court but then we came back on the picket line last week. We plan to picket as long as this takes. That could be next week, September, December, who knows?”

Recruiting and retaining new firefighters is becoming increasingly difficult, says the spokesperson. “We can't keep our firefighters because we don't get enough retainer. There are 200 fire stations across the country and 50% of them are closing every second day because the Government are backing us into a corner. We need to act now before it gets too late and more stations close for longer periods of time,” he said.

The spokesperson added that the local community in Carrigaline has been “absolutely fantastic” and they are inviting people to get behind the firefighters and show their support.