LCR23114

PARTIES:

DIVISION:

SUBJECT:

Retainer Payment

BACKGROUND:

This dispute could not be resolved at local level and was the subject of a Conciliation Conference under the auspices of the Workplace Relations Commission. As agreement was not reached, the dispute was referred to the Labour Court on 11 October 2024in accordance with Section 26(1) of the Industrial Relations Act, 1990.

A Labour Court hearing took place on 17 February 2025.

RECOMMENDATION:

The Court has given very careful consideration to the written and oral submissions of the parties.

This matter comes before the Court following extensive engagement over a period of 24 months between the parties which has radically improved practically all aspects of the terms and conditions of employment of fire fighters. There is no dispute between the parties that the terms and conditions of employment of retained firefighters required to be overhauled and improved from that which was the position prior to 2023.

A retained firefighter now has an obligation to be available for call out for 24 weeks in the year, albeit he or she can choose to respond to call outs to a greater level at their own volition. This represents a radical reduction in the obligation of firefighters to answer call outs since 2023 and this reduction has been accompanied by a significant increase in the value of the guaranteed retainer payment.

The level of call out per station varies hugely across the country. A reasonable reference point of activity for most firefighters appears to the Court to be a firefighter who attends 120 incidents per annum. This is so because it appears that approximately 50% of all stations experience 120 incidents per annum or less. In such stations a firefighter would, because they obliged to be available for 24 weeks only, be likely to attend less than 120 call outs. In the other stations where a greater number of incidents are experienced per annum and noting that the obligation resting on the firefighter is to be available for 24 weeks only per annum, the number of 120 attendances at incidents seems appears to be useful as a reference point. Obviously, many firefighters in stations with more than 120 call outs per annum will attend more than 120 incidents per annum.

It appears to not be disputed that the average duration of a call out is 80 minutes. Against that metric, the actual incident related working time of such a firefighter would be three to four hours per week averaged across the year. When training time of 96 hours per annum and community engagement time of 40 hours per annum are added to this it can be fairly said that the average weekly working time of a firefighter who responds to 120 incidents per annum is of the order of 6 hours per week when spread across the year.

The current guaranteed earnings of fire fighters with more than eight years’ service (which appears to be the profile of the majority of firefighters) have risen, through engagement and agreement, in the past 24 months from €15,571 per annum to €25,634 (an increase in the period from 2023 to 2025 of 65%). 

This guarantee applies to all firefighters with eight or more years of service regardless of the number of incidents attended.

The overall annual income of a firefighter attending 120 call outs per annum is submitted by the employer to amount to €33,630 which represents an increase 49% in the period since 2023.

Against that background, the Court has established that a survey of retained firefighters (‘Review of Recruitment and Retention and the Future Sustainability of Service Delivery’) identified that 40% of Retained Firefighters were in employment other than the Retained Firefighter Service when not attending incidents, training or community engagements; and that 27% of Retained Firefighters were self-employed outside of the service; and 33% are not engaged in employment outside of the service. These figures were not disputed as being a reasonable representation of the situation at the hearing of the Court.

The Court concludes that 67% of Retained Firefighters earn income other than the income derived from their membership of the service, while 33%, who have not succeeded in finding other employment are likely to be in receipt of benefits under the Social Welfare code.

In the view of the Court, the parties have been engaged over 24 months in a process which has radically improved the terms and conditions of employment of retained firefighters. There is no reason for the Court to suppose that retained firefighters, through their trade union, and the employer will not, like all other public sector workers and their employers, continue to be engaged in collective bargaining through national public service agreements for as long as the retained firefighting service remains in existence, and the means of bargaining for public sector workers remains national bargaining.

The Court is asked to make a recommendation as to how the different positions of the parties should be reconciled. The employer has accepted a proposal from the WRC that, in addition to all increases contained in Public Service Agreement 2024 to 2026 of 9.25% (not including a provision for local bargaining which can lead to an increase of 3% in basic pay cost), increases be paid in two moieties of €750 each  as increases to the retainer as follows:

€750 to be applied to the retainer on 1st September 2024 and €750 to be applied to the retainer on 1st September 2025.

The Trade Union side rejected the proposal from the WRC. It has submitted to the Court that the rejection was on the basis of a contention that the two increases involved should be backdated from the dates of application proposed by the WRC so as to reach a higher level of value by application of all of the increases provided by the Public Service Agreement to both increases.

Having regard to all the circumstances, and recognising that all parties engaged in collective bargaining must be able to adjust and compromise their positions in an effort to achieve voluntary agreement on a basis which is reasonable, and which is capable of being voluntarily accepted by both parties, the Court Recommends as follows:

That the proposal of the WRC should be amended so as to provide for application of an increase to the retainer of €750 on 1st May 2024 and the application of a further increase of €750 on 1st January 2025.

The Court so recommends.

	Signed on behalf of the Labour Court
	Kevin Foley
AL	______________________
28th February 2025	Chairman

NOTE

Enquiries concerning this Recommendation should be addressed to Amy Leonard, Court Secretary.