Labour Court Make Recommendations To Avert Dispute Between Retained Firefighters In Wicklow

The Local Government Management Agency and SIPTU were invited by the Labour Court to enter talks before industrial action would have seen a full withdrawal of services by retained fire-fighters.

The Labour Court Recommendation, calls for staff at retained stations in Wicklow to be increased to 12, thereby allowing a crew of six to be rostered on, while an alternate crew is off.

The plans would see an increase of approximately 400 staff and thereby reduce the liability of each firefighter to respond to alerts from 75% to 45% of alerts.

The Labour Court has called for an increase across the scale of between 24.1% to 32.7%.

The recommendations have now been sent to both parties for review.