Fire and Emergency New Zealand (FENZ) has again urged the firefighters’ union to call off its twice-weekly strikes while members vote on a pay offer. FENZ warns the stoppages will delay fire response in affected areas.
The New Zealand Professional Firefighters Union (NZPFU) is due to strike from midday to 1pm today. Further stoppages are scheduled for midday on Friday 6 November and Saturday 7 November.
National commander Megan Stiffler said there is even less justification for striking while members consider an offer. More than 50 one-hour stoppages have hit career crews since August 2025, as previously reported.
The offer provides two annual salary increases of 2.2%, plus new and increased allowances. FENZ says that adds up to an average rise in take-home pay of approximately 2.5% in the first year.
A version of the offer was first tabled in December 2025. FENZ says the union’s refusal to put it to members cost the average senior firefighter more than $2,600 in missed earnings.
FENZ also says the union would not table a revised pay proposal or name an acceptable outcome. It says only FENZ answered when the Employment Relations Authority, acting as facilitator, asked both sides for best offers.
FENZ also offered to discuss independent arbitration, which it says the union declined.
The union sees it differently. Its national secretary, Wattie Watson, said earlier this month the offer does not address staffing, safe systems of work or the impact of FENZ’s restructure.
It also proposes a sunset clause on the union’s health monitoring programme, the union said. The 2.2% is below the 2.4% already awarded to non-union staff, as previously reported.
Watson has also said firefighters did not want to strike but felt they had no alternative, the Otago Daily Times reported.
The dispute is unfolding amid leadership upheaval at FENZ. Chief executive Kerry Gregory resigned on 23 October, five weeks after Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden said she had no confidence in him.
Van Velden said mid-September that he had withheld information, calling it a “serious breach of trust”.
The matter concerns FENZ’s administration of its levy scheme before 2021. FENZ referred it to the Serious Fraud Office and said Gregory himself was not referred.
Watson said the resignation should be a catalyst for “massive and sweeping change” at FENZ. An acting chief executive is in place, and Stiffler remains national commander.
FENZ is funded mostly by a levy on property and motor insurance policies, which brokers collect from clients.
The Government ordered a review of the funding model in June. A proposed levy rise was revised down from 5.2% to 2.2% from July 2026, according to ICNZ.
During strikes, volunteer crews respond from the next closest location, and FENZ says all 111 calls are still received and answered. FENZ has asked businesses and building owners to manage their own fire risk during strikes.
At a Dunedin house fire in August, volunteer crews took about eight minutes to arrive. FENZ said paid crews would have needed about one.
Members are meeting until November 3 to vote on the offer and on possible further action. Stiffler said FENZ is focused on a “sustainable settlement”.
