More than 900 members of the Dublin Fire Brigade are seeking a pay rise based on the Government's offer to the Garda Representative Association. SIPTU and IMPACT have served the claim. If successful, it would have a knockon effect for 200 full-time and 4,000 part-time firefighters throughout the State.
Dublin Fire Brigade also has responsibility for the emergency ambulance service in the greater Dublin area.
The claim comes as pressure mounts on the Government from public service workers for further pay increases in line with the offer to the GRA. Firefighters have a stronger claim than most, with an almost identical pay scale to the Garda and a recognised pay relativity dating back to 1968.
Yesterday, the SIPTU branch secretary, Mr Paul Smith, confirmed that a formal claim, based on the GRA offer, had been presented to the four Dublin local authorities. But he said that this was not an attempt to reopen pay talks under the Programme for Competitiveness and Work along the lines advocated by the INTO general secretary, Mr Joe O'Toole. Firefighters were one of the few groups in the public service who had still to conclude their own restructuring talks under the PCW.
However, Mr Smith did not rule out a "second bite" in the light of the final GRA settlement.
Like other public service groups, the firefighters were given a down payment of 1 per cent on future productivity in April 1994. Dublin Corporation, which is acting for all four Dublin local authorities in the pay negotiations, wants significant extra productivity in return for any increases and is resisting union attempts to link pay elements of the restructuring deal to the GRA offer. It maintains that the PCW allows for breaking traditional links.
Mr Smith said yesterday that firefighters had already conceded considerable productivity. While his members were willing to concede more to management, "they were not going to get the kitchen sink". He added: "I'm looking at what the Government got in productivity from the gardai and I don't see too much."
Mr Smith said that SIPTU had already notified the Department of Finance that any offer to the GRA would have implications for firefighters.
SIPTU represents most of the 900 Dublin Fire Brigade personnel and IMPACT represents the balance of about 70.