Source: Radio New Zealand
Auckland firefighters protest for better pay and work conditions on November 2025. RNZ/Lucy Xia
Fire and Emergency (FENZ) has once again postponed its final decisions about restructuring.
Originally, FENZ said it would decide before Christmas on a proposal made last November to cut 140 positions and make changes to 700 roles in total.
It pushed that back to January, then again to Wednesday.
It has now been postponed again.
“The release of Fire and Emergency New Zealand’s organisational structure consultation decisions has been postponed until we have received the second determination from the Employment Relations Authority,” it said.
This second Employment Relations Authority (ERA) ruling was in response to two unions challenging FENZ’s consultation process.
FENZ said the ERA’s first ruling aligned with its position that it was not required to consult with the unions before issuing its change proposal last November, and that it can consult with them at the same time about the reason for changes and actual proposed changes.
The two sides were scheduled to go back to facilitated bargaining for two days in late March.
The Professional Firefighters Union earlier dropped a proposed ban on some administrative duties, such as doing fire reports.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
