A need for live-fire training sessions was one of the many reasons why Dunedin and Mosgiel career firefighters once again walked off the job for an hour and took to the Dunedin Railway Station yesterday.
New Zealand Professional Firefighters Union (NZPFU) Dunedin secretary senior firefighter Mike Taylor said there were no live-fire training sessions for new firefighters to train at in New Zealand.
That meant for many of Dunedin’s newest firefighters, their first battle with a live fire was on the job.
"There is just a litany of issues."
Live-fire cells at the national training centre in Rotorua are not able to be used.
Containers had warped and had holes, the reburner had mostly never worked and the whole big building leaked smoke out across the training ground and into classrooms.
The only other live-fire facility in Woolston, Christchurch was also shut due to smoke leaking out earlier this year.
SFF Taylor said Fire and Emergency New Zealand had tested the Woolston facility over the past few days — but those tests had failed.
He said the problems at both facilities were long-standing.
Fenz were "making do" with gas prompts, but, "it’s not the same thing".
Both career and volunteer firefighters were affected by the lack of training.
"There are people coming on to the job that haven’t had any live fire exposure — it’s crazy, and and I think it should be a breach of health and safety."
Fenz and NZPFU have been locked in negotiations for a collective employment agreement for career firefighters. After failures to come to an agreement, NZPFU began nationwide industrial action in August.
Talks between the union and Fenz centred on health and safety concerns, ageing equipment, staffing numbers and pay.
"We’ve still got the same issues, we’ve still got the trucks faulting, and we’re still running short-staffed through our stations," SFF Taylor said.
Fenz Deputy national commander Megan Stifler said she was disappointed that NZPFU had undertaken another strike since facilitation between the two with the Employment Relations Authority had been granted.
"We ask the NZPFU to call off all planned future strikes while both parties are preparing for facilitation."
Fenz confirmed there were 13 incidents in areas impacted by the strike, none of which were in Otago or Southland.
