The New Zealand Professional Firefighters Union (NZPFU) says Fire and Emergency New Zealand (FENZ) does not plan to table a revised collective bargaining offer at Employment Relations Authority (ERA)‑facilitated talks scheduled for late March. In a March 17 statement, NZPFU national secretary Wattie Watson said the ERA had contacted the union offering facilitated bargaining on March 30 and 31. The union said it had not been copied into earlier exchanges between the ERA and FENZ and had asked for, but not received, that material.
According to the NZPFU, it agreed to the proposed facilitation dates on the basis that FENZ would bring a new settlement offer, which chief executive Kerry Gregory had earlier indicated was being prepared. Watson said subsequent correspondence from Gregory stated that FENZ expected the NZPFU to present a revised proposal at the outset of facilitation and that FENZ would not table a new offer first. The union has advised the ERA it will not attend facilitated bargaining unless the purpose is for FENZ to present that offer. “The NZPFU accepted facilitation on the basis that FENZ would provide a new offer that CE Kerry Gregory had earlier told the Union it was being worked on. Today, Kerry Gregory wrote to the union claiming FENZ is expecting NZPFU to table a new settlement proposal at the commencement of the facilitation,” Watson said.
The current dispute follows the expiry of the parties’ 2021‑24 collective agreement on June 30, 2024, and bargaining activity going back to 2019. The NZPFU has identified remuneration, staffing, work health and safety, and aspects of FENZ’s structure and resourcing as matters still in contention. Union‑led industrial action has been under way since August 2025. With ERA involvement, NZPFU and FENZ met seven times in facilitated bargaining, most recently on Feb. 13, 2026, before that process was paused. There is currently no successor collective agreement covering the period after June 2024.
The NZPFU says its last proposal was tabled on Jan. 26, 2026, and that while some issues have been addressed, central items remain unresolved. The union says FENZ has not put a new proposal forward since 2025. In parallel, the NZPFU and the Public Service Association (PSA) are challenging a FENZ restructuring proposal at the ERA. The unions say the proposal could disestablish about 140 roles and affect around 700 positions, mainly in non‑operational functions. That matter remains before the authority.
The parties also diverge on how bargaining should restart and who should move first. In a March 5 email, Gregory told the union that FENZ’s bargaining team had reviewed its position and was preparing a revised offer, saying, “We are planning for the offer to be tabled at facilitation.” He also asked that the NZPFU withdraw current industrial action and pause future action while facilitation was in progress. The union says it indicated it was prepared to meet FENZ in direct bargaining, outside the facilitation process, for any revised offer to be presented.
Separately, following member meetings in February, Watson proposed involving again a third party who assisted in resolving the 2022 dispute. In its communication, the NZPFU described that person as “highly respected and experienced” and “pivotal” to the 2022 settlement and suggested they work with both sides on a joint proposal focused on disputed issues. According to the union, FENZ declined the proposal, saying the person would not be engaged “given his past history with the parties.” The NZPFU has pointed to the same history and familiarity with the issues as reasons for its suggestion.
The union has also referred back to comments made by Gregory at the time of the 2022 settlement, when he said he was “excited by the settlement” and that it addressed “significant change in the working environment for firefighters… and addresses key issues,” including safe staffing and the fire appliance fleet. The NZPFU says what it calls an earlier “agreement in principle” for more than 200 additional firefighters and 111 emergency call centre dispatchers has not been implemented and that fleet concerns continue.
The NZPFU says it remains available for negotiations and has outlined elements it considers necessary for a settlement. These include staffing levels across work groups; involvement in appliance planning and procurement; provisions on training; explicit recognition of occupational cancer and access to mental health programmes; extended coverage to some members currently outside the agreement; and what it describes as “fair and reasonable wages,” noting members “have not had a pay increase since July 2023.”
Industrial action is continuing while arrangements for further talks are discussed. The union has confirmed national one‑hour strikes at 12pm on March 20, 23, 27, and 30 and April 1, 2026. Earlier notices also referred to a one‑hour strike at noon on April 1, and indicated there would be no strike on April 3, stating that “that is Good Friday and all those on leave should be able to enjoy precious time with whanau and friends.” From March 23, the union is also implementing bans on administrative and other non‑emergency duties. These measures are intended to operate alongside existing national one‑hour stoppages at midday every Monday and Friday at career‑staffed stations that have been in place since 2025. The NZPFU says more than 93% of members who attended 25 meetings in February voted to support both the additional bans and the continuation of rolling one‑hour strikes. In correspondence with FENZ, Watson said members would “continue to fight for a fair and reasonable collective agreement that includes the necessary safe systems of work.”
The bargaining is occurring within FENZ’s existing funding model, in which about 95% of operating revenue is collected through statutory levies on home, contents, and motor insurance policies, with the remainder from government and other non‑levy sources. Before facilitation began, FENZ outlined a three‑year remuneration proposal that it said would deliver an average 6.2% increase and align with other recent public sector settlements. The agency has said this package was about one‑third of the cost of the NZPFU’s position and that it sought ERA facilitation because there was “a significant gap between what we were offering and the NZPFU’s expectations.”
Under its proposal, FENZ has indicated that average senior firefighter base salaries would move from about $81,000-$87,000 to approximately $86,000-$93,000 over the term, excluding overtime and allowances. It has also said that overtime and allowances add close to $39,000 on average to annual pay and that average senior firefighter remuneration has increased by about 37% over the past decade. FENZ has said it considers industrial action should be paused while facilitation takes place. FENZ reports a workforce of about 14,900 personnel across paid and volunteer roles, a fleet of roughly 1,300 appliances and close to 600 stations, and around 89,000 incident responses each year. The outcome of the dispute and any changes in FENZ’s cost structure or staffing profile will be of interest given the agency’s reliance on insurance‑based levies for most of its operating income.
