FENZ CE Kerry Gregory’s resignation announcement this
evening should be the catalyst for massive and sweeping
change for FENZ.
CE Kerry Gregory had run out of room
– there was no way he could survive the outcome of the
Parliamentary Select Committee Report into the state of the
fleet, the finding that senior leadership had
“deliberately misled” the Committee on key operational
points, or the Minister’s declaration of a complete loss
of confidence over his handling of a matter that is now
before the Serious Fraud Office.
He had demonstrated
time and time again that he did not have the attributes
necessary to lead FENZ. His position was untenable with the
exposure of his recent actions.
The FENZ Board must
now seriously review and consider the merits and process of
the changes he was pursuing, as well as scrutinise the
actions of those who were enabling him to do so.
Kerry
Gregory’s “vision” included a wide-sweeping
restructure that would do nothing to refocus the
organisation on emergency response, driving down career
firefighter numbers, and truncating critical community risk
initiatives (including this week’s announcement of
reducing domestic smoke alarm installations).
Under
his watch, the number of highly paid managers and
non-operational staff soared while firefighters were left
with a fleet of ageing and unreliable appliances, assets
were not maintained (resulting in career recruits graduating
without ever having experienced live fire training), and
firefighters were left to deploy from substandard stations
that have perilously low earthquake ratings or result in
repeated, avoidable exposures to asbestos.
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Under his
watch, the NZPFU strongly believes firefighting is more
dangerous than it has ever been, with failures to maintain
minimum staffing requiring responses in fire appliances that
break down en route or at incidents.
As CE, Kerry
Gregory has led an attack on NZPFU members. He authorised a
2.2% offer to NZPFU members who have not had a pay increase
for three years, while awarding 2.4% to all non-NZPFU staff,
including those who have had pay increases in the interim.
We believe his vision for NZPFU members was to try and
starve them out of their union membership and the current
bargaining dispute through failed, old-fashioned
union-busting attempts.
The NZPFU would welcome an
opportunity to meet with the Board to discuss what now needs
to be done to turn the organisation around, ensuring its
resources are used properly for the purposes
provided.
