Firefighters are ‘‘astonished’’ to find out their employers do not keep exact records of truck breakdowns, after being told for months they were ‘‘exaggerating the truth’’ about the fragility of their fleet.
Earlier this year, Taieri MP Ingrid Leary asked in written questions to Parliament about the number of times firefighters in the South had not been able to respond to call-outs due to equipment failure and lack of staff.
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden responded by saying the exact number of breakdowns by region could not be provided by Fenz due to limitations in its manual systems.
New Zealand Professional Firefighters Union Dunedin secretary Senior Firefighter Mike Taylor it was ‘‘pretty amazing’’ that Fire and Emergency New Zealand (Fenz) were not able to provide that information to the minister.
‘‘I find it astonishing because we’re being told constantly that we’re exaggerating the data, yet when we actually push them for the data, they can’t give it to us.’’
Fenz has said a new system for reporting breakdowns and lack of staff to fill crews was coming in the next financial year.
‘‘If they don’t know what the answer is, then we can stop bad-mouthing the firefighters and maybe admit that mistakes have been made.
‘‘If they do happen to have the data, then they need to be upfront and admit it.’’
SFF Taylor said when they had a breakdown, or a fault while on the run, that was transmitted to the communication centre, then logged within those specific job notes.
That was why he was surprised that Fenz said the data was not available.
Last August, the NZPFU started nationwide industrial action after negotiations for a collective agreement with Fire and Emergency New Zealand (Fenz) failed.
Currently, there are no set dates for future negotiations.
‘‘Both the government and Fenz keep saying they want to resolve this as quickly as possible . . . that just doesn’t ring true when we’re sitting here without any future dates for negotiations,’’ SFF Taylor said.
Fenz deputy chief executive Sarah Sinclair said they were implementing a new fault management system for their fleet in the next financial year.
‘‘This will modernise how faults are reported, tracked, and resolved, [and] will significantly improve the information we can access automatically about the fleet.’’
She said their dispatch system worked to mitigate any truck issues, and if a truck was unavailable for any reason, the next closest available truck was automatically dispatched.
