Labour Court refers retained firefighters' dual-pay dispute to implementation group

The Labour Court recommended that Laois County Council and the Services Industrial Professional Technical Union refer their dispute over dual payments for retained firefighters to the Local Authority Implementation Group. The recommendation was signed on 5 October 2012. The council wanted to end the payments when daytime fire calls took four retained firefighters away from their full-time council jobs. The union argued that reducing their pay and pension for answering emergency calls was unfair and contrary to the Public Service Agreement, and sought repayment of deductions already made. The council said the arrangement paid firefighters for both roles while they attended one job and that ending it would improve efficiency. The Court said the issue could affect other local authorities and recommended using the Public Service Agreement procedures before it dealt with the matter. If the parties could not agree through the implementation group, the dispute could return to the Court.