Labour Court recommends six weeks of talks on retained firefighters’ leave

The Labour Court recommended that Galway County Council and the Services Industrial Professional Technical Union work together for six weeks to develop a workable annual leave system for retained firefighters for the 2019/2020 leave year. The dispute covered taking annual leave and accumulated arrears. The union said reduced staffing made leave difficult to take and that some firefighters had up to 100 days outstanding. The Council said it needed enough crew to provide fire services and that leave should be taken within the leave year. The Court said the parties should first resolve how leave would be taken. It would consider the arrears after being notified of an agreed system; if the parties could not agree within six weeks, the outstanding issues should return to the Court for a definitive recommendation.