As Christmas looms, discussions between the New Zealand Professional Firefighters Union (NZPFU) and Fire and Emergency New Zealand have been paused.
However, Dunedin firefighters would still be working with ageing equipment, constant truck breakdowns and inadequate staffing numbers, NZPFU Dunedin secretary Senior Firefighter Mike Taylor said.
He said the firefighters would be on working through Christmas and New Year’s, making do with the equipment they had.
"Our mechanics are doing an awesome job ... They’ll still be on call; they’ll be still coming out and trying to keep us going."
"They ended up walking out of the facilitation - literally walking out. They just never came back in after lunchtime."
He said facilitation was where a member of the ERA listened to the two sides discussing their positions.
Both sides would ultimately make a recommendation on how to progress, but their recommendations were non-binding.
"The recommendations are unlikely to to please either party, and therefore it’s unlikely to progress at all."
The first two recommendations had not led to an agreement and, as a result, the next time the parties could meet would not be until after Christmas.
"Everyone goes on holiday and everyone’s happy, but we crack on - and meanwhile, we’ve had another truck breakdown this week, and currently we have another truck in the Dunedin yard with an air leak.
"It’s happening all the time, and it will keep happening over Christmas."
Talks between the union and Fenz centred on health and safety concerns, ageing equipment, staffing numbers and pay.
