Twice-weekly firefighter strikes across New Zealand are creating recurring gaps in urban fire response, raising questions for property insurers and brokers about whether claims exposure in affected areas is shifting.
Fire and Emergency New Zealand (FENZ) has called on the New Zealand Professional Firefighters Union (NZPFU) to suspend its industrial action while members vote on a proposed pay settlement. The next strike was scheduled for Wednesday, October 21, 2026, between 4.30pm and 5.30pm, with further stoppages planned on subsequent Wednesdays and Fridays.
“There is no point for NZPFU’s leaders to put the public at risk while their members are going through a process of voting on a proposed settlement,” National Commander Megan Stiffler said.
The dispute has produced more than 50 one-hour work stoppages since August 2025, according to the Porirua News. During each strike, career firefighters leave their stations and volunteer crews respond from the next closest location. FENZ said all 111 emergency calls continue to be received and dispatched, but warned that response times would be delayed in strike-affected areas.
The operational cost of that delay was demonstrated during a house fire on Thomson Street, Caversham, Dunedin, on August 7, 2026. FENZ said paid crews from the nearest station would have reached the scene in approximately one minute. Volunteer crews, responding from Ravensbourne, Outram, Port Chalmers, and Brighton, took approximately eight minutes, according to the Otago Daily Times. By the time an assistant area commander arrived, the house was fully involved in fire.
For property underwriters, the difference between a one-minute and eight-minute response can determine whether a claim is partial damage or total loss.
Read more: FENZ hits 50 strikes with pay deal still out of reach
The proposed deal includes two annual salary increases of 2.2%, alongside new and increased allowances. When allowances, salary, and overtime increases are combined, the average increase in take-home pay amounts to approximately 2.5% in the first year, according to FENZ.
A version of this offer was first tabled in December 2025, but the NZPFU declined to put it to members at that time. FENZ estimates the delay has cost the average senior firefighter more than $2,600 in missed earnings.
“Every time Fire and Emergency has shifted its position to bring the parties together, the NZPFU has increased its claim. That has made reaching settlement impossible,” Stiffler said.
FENZ said it participated in independent facilitation through the Employment Relations Authority (ERA), which asked both parties to put forward their best offer. FENZ said it agreed to do so. The NZPFU did not. FENZ also proposed independent arbitration, which the union declined.
The NZPFU has not responded publicly to FENZ’s latest call to suspend strikes. In previous statements reported by the Otago Daily Times, NZPFU National Secretary Wattie Watson said firefighters did not want to strike but felt they had no alternative. Watson has also pointed to concerns about appliance reliability, staffing levels, and specialist equipment as factors affecting public safety beyond the pay dispute.
The strikes connect directly to the insurance sector. FENZ is funded almost entirely through levies on insurance policies covering property and motor vehicles. Brokers collect that levy from clients at the point of sale.
Insurance Brokers Association of New Zealand (IBANZ) chief executive Katherine Wilson has said “those who pay insurance premiums are unfairly burdened with funding them.”
Insurance Council of New Zealand (ICNZ) Chief Executive Kris Faafoi has said “insurers have long questioned whether it remains the most appropriate way to fund such a core public service.”
The government has been reviewing the FENZ funding model and asked the organisation to deliver $60 million in savings over a three-year period. A proposed levy increase was revised down from 5.2% to 2.2% from July 2026, according to ICNZ.
Fire preparedness is already a growing concern across the New Zealand market. James Knight, head of APAC risk advisory at Aon New Zealand, has said brokers need to shift the conversation with clients from whether they will experience a fire to whether they are prepared if one happens. “The question shouldn’t be ‘will I ever experience a wildfire?’; it should be, ‘am I prepared if one happens?’” Knight said.
Past events show how quickly fire losses accumulate. The 2020 Lake Ohau fire generated 230 claims totalling $35.2 million in insured losses, according to ICNZ data. In urban settings where career crews are normally minutes away, repeated short delays during routine structure fires could shift the balance between salvageable and unsalvageable property.
Read more: The fire service risk your property clients aren’t pricing
“Fire and Emergency is focused on coming to a sustainable settlement so we can continue working to keep our communities safe,” Stiffler said.
