The PSA and the New Zealand Professional Firefighters Union have filed more legal proceedings in the Employment Relations Authority to stop Fire and Emergency NZ (FENZ) progressing with a restructure the Authority has already found was carried out unlawfully.
The unions have filed for compliance orders to stop FENZ making any decisions, dismissing any union members or changing their terms and conditions until it meets its obligations under the collective agreements and the law.
In March, the Authority found FENZ breached both collective agreements and its duty of good faith, by failing to consult the unions on whether change was needed and why.
Six months on, FENZ has restarted the same process, with the same consultants, without fixing the problem, said Public Service Association Te Pūkenga Here Tikanga Mahi National Secretary, Fleur Fitzsimons.
“FENZ was told by the Authority it broke the law. Instead of starting again properly, it has dusted off the same plan and is trying to push it through anyway,” said Ms Fitzsimons.
“We wrote to the board chair asking him to suspend the restructure. He refused, leaving the unions with no choice but to go back to the Authority.
“FENZ’s so-called ‘reasons for change’ document is a consultant-written mess of bullet points, arrows and coloured boxes, with substantial AI input. Almost every proposed change comes with the exact same boilerplate justification.
“You can’t restructure an emergency service on that basis. It must stop now, before livelihoods are upended for no good reason.
“These are the people who train firefighters, reduce fire risk in our communities and support crews when they’re called out to emergencies. Their jobs shouldn’t be cut on the strength of a document nobody can make sense of.
“FENZ has botched this restructure time and again – a public good test would have forced it to properly weigh its impacts across a range of criteria, avoiding this mess.”
NZPFU National Secretary, Wattie Watson said the restructure must be stopped.
“FENZ’s chief executive has lost the confidence of his own Minister. FENZ has no business forcing through a process the Authority has already found unlawful,” said Ms Watson.
“This shouldn’t be happening in the middle of an election campaign, when parties including Labour have committed to a review of FENZ. Locking in the biggest restructure in FENZ’s history weeks out from polling is reckless.”
