Do firefighters earn less than the minimum hourly rate?

No. If it was true the Fire Service would be prosecuted as it would be breaking the law.  The hourly rate quoted by the NZPFU excludes the eight basic allowances and agreed payments that all firefighters receive every week as part of their total weekly wage that are designed to compensate them for the base hours they work.  The Fire Service has asked the union to agree to make this hourly rate more transparent by rolling the allowances into it. This is something the union has also asked for in the past, in acknowledgement that it is not an accurate reflection of what firefighters are paid for an hour's work.

The proposed hourly rate WITH all the allowances, plus the 2.5 per cent pay increase being offered

On average firefighters total earnings in the 2010/11 year were: 

Firefighters need to earn more to catch up with inflation.

Firefighter wages are keeping pace with inflation, in fact they’re doing better than the private sector. The October 2010 tax cuts were intended to offset the impact of the GST increase. These tax cuts resulted in pay increases of between 3.65 per cent  and 3.95 per cent depending on the firefighters' rank. This translates to about $1200 to $1800 per annum.
These increases, coupled with the pay round  increase offered by NZFS would mean net pay for firefighters would have increased by in excess of 6%  -  above the projected CPI of 5.3%.

The NZPFU says they have not had a pay increase in several years.

This is not correct.  In 2009, a two year CEA was negotiated that provided firefighters with 1.8% for 2009 and 1.7% for 2010.  It also included a lump sum payment equivalent to 1.7% of total earnings for the 2009 year.  The graph below shows the cumulative wage increases NZFS firefighters and officers have received since 2001, compared against cumulative CPI increase and compared against the annual wage change for the public sector.  NZFS wage rates have increased at a similar rate to both the CPI and Public Sector wages over the period 2001 to 2010. 

How does the NZFS offer compare with other settlements?

NZFS's current offer, which has been rejected by firefighters, is in many respects more generous that other recent State sector settlements. 

What is the cost of the settlement to NZFS?

The cost of NZFS's offer is $7.65M over the term of the CEA.  The 8.9 per cent claim by the NZPFU would cost $18.97M and is simply unaffordable.    

Is the industrial action going to expose New Zealander's to danger?

In NZFS's view, the longer the industrial action goes on the greater the risk to the New Zealand public.  Firefighters are refusing to train - this will result in a degradation of their skills and those of the volunteers that they also train. They are also refusing to carry out equipment maintenance, install smoke alarms and work with young fire-lighters to change their behaviour.

What will the impact be on the installation of smoke alarms?

Firefighters install around 1,200 homes per month.  We know that smoke alarms save lives so there is a very real concern that stopping this work will increase the risk to the New Zealand public.

Shouldn't the Fire Service do more to try and prevent the strike action from going ahead?

We have spent 10 days in negotiations with the NZPFU since last December. Over that time, NZFS has modified its position significantly in an attempt to achieve settlement, responding to issues raised by the NZPFU. 

The NZFS had one major claim for these negotiations, to introduce some more flexible roster options to enable additional staff to be employed so that the amount of overtime required from firefighters could reduce.  This was in response to a request from the NZPFU during the last negotiations to reduce overtime. We withdrew this claim in the hopes it would help us reach a settlement.  During negotiations the NZPFU have only modified their position twice, once to reduce their pay claim to 2.9%, and most recently to increase their pay claim to 8.93%.