The PSA and the New Zealand Professional Firefighters
Union have filed more legal proceedings in the Employment
Relations Authority which aim to stop Fire and Emergency NZ
pushing ahead with a restructure the Authority has already
found was carried out unlawfully.
The unions have
filed for compliance
orders to stop FENZ making any decisions, dismissing any
union members or changing their terms and conditions until
it meets its obligations under the collective agreements and
the law.
In March the Authority found FENZ breached
both collective agreements and its duty of good faith, by
failing to consult the unions on whether change was needed
and why. Six months on, FENZ has restarted the same process,
with the same consultants, without fixing the
problem.
“FENZ was told by the Authority it broke the
law. Instead of starting again properly, it has dusted off
the same plan and is trying to push it through anyway,” said
Fleur Fitzsimons, National Secretary for the Public Service
Association Te Pūkenga Here Tikanga Mahi.
“We wrote
to the board chair asking him to suspend the restructure. He
refused, leaving the unions with no choice but to go back to
the Authority.
“FENZ’s so-called ‘reasons for
change’ document is a consultant-written mess of bullet
points, arrows and coloured boxes, with substantial AI
input. Almost every proposed change comes with the exact
same boilerplate justification.
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“You can’t
restructure an emergency service on that basis. It must stop
now, before livelihoods are upended for no good
reason.
“These are the people who train firefighters,
reduce fire risk in our communities and support crews when
they’re called out to emergencies. Their jobs shouldn’t
be cut on the strength of a document nobody can make sense
of.”
Fleur Fitzsimons said this was a textbook case of
why a public good test is needed for all public sector
restructures. “FENZ has botched this restructure time and
again – a public good test would have forced it to properly
weigh its impacts across a range of criteria, avoiding this
mess.”
NZPFU National Secretary Wattie Watson said the
restructure must be stopped.
“FENZ’s chief executive
has lost the confidence of his own Minister. FENZ has no
business forcing through a process the Authority has already
found unlawful.
“This shouldn’t be happening in the
middle of an election campaign, when parties including
Labour have committed to a review of FENZ. Locking in the
biggest restructure in FENZ’s history weeks out from
polling is reckless.”
Previous statements
18
Mar 2026 – ERA
rules FENZ broke the law – restructure breached good faith
and obligations to consult
Public good
test
31 August 2026 Enough
is enough: public good test needed to stop Govt’s reckless
restructures
The
Public Service Association Te Pūkenga Here Tikanga
Mahi is Aotearoa New Zealand’s largest trade
union, representing and supporting more than 95,000 workers
across central government, state-owned enterprises, local
councils, health boards and community
groups.
