July 2011 Newsletter

IFESA Membership

IFESA is able to announce that the membership in Dublin continues to grow, and we now represent over 60% of Fire Fighters in Dublin Fire Brigade. There is a large number of Fire Fighters in no union at the moment which would leave very reduced numbers in the two other unions. The numbers around the country continue to grow.

Clothing issue Dublin Fire Brigade

Most personnel would have received their 2010 clothing issue this month. There was a wide range of feedback regarding this issue which the clothing committee will be going through in the coming weeks. If you have any issue please advise us.

The PPE tendering document for Fire Fighting is expected to be finalised by the end of the year. There are a number of options open to us in the care package that will come with this PPE. Once a final decision is made we will let you know.

Grievance Procedure

In May we asked IFESA members if they felt aggrieved by not being consulted on the issues of the CPA proposals that were balloted on you as an employee are entitled to lodge a grievance with the Chief Fire Officer. If you did lodge a grievance procedure as an individual and have not heard anything after the 2 weeks period please contact us as we will be providing advice and the representation on how to utilise the mechanisms that the state have to offer to resolve grievances.

We have a number of cases that are being processed through the LRC. We will inform you of developments.

Freedom of Information Requests

A number of FOI requests were refused by DCC and they have now been appealed to the Information Commissioner for review. We have received other information back from other agencies which will be useful.

Recognition

The process for recognition is still ongoing. We are still battling away behind the scenes. This was never going to be an easy process. We can take heart as what we are doing is being looked on with great interest from other groups from both SIPTU & IMPACT. We have been contacted by a number of groups from both unions who have had the same issues as we have had. Some of these groups are very large one in particular numbering over 5,000 members. It is this determination of IFESA to get a professional association/union to represent Fire Fighters that other unions fear .The possible wider implications of IFESA succeeding is what the other unions and ICTU are worried about. They are putting up a fight to prevent us in succeeding. We can state here and now we will not give up and will not be going away. We are here to stay. It will be a long struggle in order to succeed but will be worth it in the end.

IFESA Group Schemes

This is proving to be very successful with large savings to be had by fire fighters around the country. In particular the car insurance policy by JLT seems for the majority of people to be the lowest out there with very favourable terms. The Meteor 25% discount is proving popular as well. In the coming weeks we hope to bring more companies on board to give an even wider range of services to Fire Fighters.

Correspondence from members

We have received correspondence from members in relation to a number of issues. Some of these have led to us instigating a number of cases with employers around the country.

Global Alliance meeting in Australia

Having returned from Australia recently from a Global Alliance meeting IFESA was well received by all. A lot of very useful information was given to us covering a very broad range of topics. Over the coming months we will be working on a few new campaigns that will benefit Fire Fighters in Ireland. We remind people John went on this trip at his own expense and was supported by the Australian Fire Fighters Union.

Health and Safety

The number of issues being raised by members around the country under H&S is alarming. There have been a number of issues that we have had to contact the H&S Authority about. The failure of Brigade to provide a safe system of work is vital for Fire Fighters. In many Brigades there is a lot of equipment that is missing from appliances and is not being replaced. This missing equipment is vital in order to provide a safe system of work. The PDA have not been changed in order to reflect this missing equipment

Regards

John Kidd

Interim Chairperson IFESA DFB

0876588999

IFESA Information