I got sacked from my job as a firefighter…. I tried to fight fire with fire.
Good luck to them, they deserve it.
Who’s next, I wonder?
Yet the lads who decide their level of wages have theirs tied to the top rate of pay a civil servant gets, and every raise is took.
Good, I hope the fire fighters get what is needed/wanted.
>There are currently around 3,000 firefighters nationwide. Some two-thirds of this number — over 2,000 — are employed as retained rather than full-time firefighters. Retained fire service staff are paid an annual retainer to be available for call-outs, but their pay depends on the number of incidents they attend.
>They are allowed to work part-time jobs to supplement their income, but do so knowing that their second job must be within 2.5km of their fire station.
>Retained firefighters must also live within that same distance from the fire station they are attached to in order to respond “within five minutes” of being paged to report to work.
>“Retained firefighters are on call 24/7. They can never have a drink, can never stray too far from home, because unlike full-time firefighters, they don’t work shifts,” Mr McFadden said.
>“They have to be available constantly. Remember the Covid 2km restriction rule in 2020 when every person in Ireland couldn’t travel outside of that radius? Welcome to the world of a retained firefighter. You are a prisoner in your own town.
That’s insane, I don’t blame them.
Good luck lads, fight the good fight
I’m really confused with how the fire brigade works, they’re paid using public funds, but bill you like a private company if you get a call out?
It’s ridiculous that those who are running into burning buildings to save people are paid so poorly. A fire fighter should never have to work two jobs to make ends meet.
Jesus I never knew about that system. What a shite state of affairs.
My brother in law is a retained firefighter. My sister has 3 small kids, and she’s basically a prisoner. She can’t leave the kids with him and run into the shops for an errand. She can never leave him with the kids because if he gets a beeper alert to go, he has to run out the door. Their lives revolve around his part-time job. They have very few weekends away or nights off the whole year.
Just another essential service falling to shit under FG/FF.
How about they use some of the budget surplus to provide a full time fire service?
Been working as a retained firefighter for a few years now if anyone has any questions about the service or how it works. Will be as transparent as possible.
The biggest issue we are having is pay (obviously, retainer starts at less than 9k per year for 24/7 on call hours). Time off, if I want to go into my closest city, go out for dinner or go to the cinema I need to ask for time off, station officer is as generous as he can be but with a max 10 and currently 7 firefighters it’s not always possible to get time off. Recruitment, this stems from the other two issues but one of my neighbouring stations was down to 4 active members recently (now 5) and have not been able to get anyone to join.
feel free to ask questions, the more the public know the more support I think we will get in this fight for basic quality of life changes.
Reading the insane requirements I couldn’t believe they expect anyone to do that job, as you can’t go anywhere. Only way anyone would do that is if it was well paid and/or you got free accommodation in the station. Then I saw the wages. What the actual…
I’m a single, unmarried man who never plans on having kids. I live close to my local station. I lost my job last year. I would also love a job that was a positive contribution to society, instead of just making profits for some other prick.
I should be a prime candidate (and the station near me has a sign out front saying they’re recruiting). But I wouldn’t even consider applying unless the wages were (at minimum) trebled. The conditions are too restrictive and you could die or be seriously injured on any call out, not to mention possibly see (and smell) some incredibly awful scenes that would stay with you for life.
The budget surplus should be used towards the fire service and politicians wages should be cut and the savings given to these lads. But nothing will be done until we have a tragedy like a fire in a block of flats or something.
Jesus just read through it.
Amazed they haven’t gone in strike before. They should go on strike long term – those terms of employment are utterly ridiculous. Working delivering newspapers would give you more of a work life balance and better prospects.
My Dads a retained station officer since 2000 and he’s required to retire in a few years but he isn’t entitled to a pension :(. Luckily my mams paid a lot better so we’ll probably be fine
Solidarity to my brothers and sisters in the south from NIFRS.
Not to mention (not in all circumstances) one of the most ironic things is the local authorities expect employers to let you go to a fire call at a moments notice but won’t hire you as part of the county council in case it takes you away from your duties…. The fuck?!
Doesn’t seem to be much of a life working that job. If the money isn’t good and work life is bad, what’s the draw?
100% support for the firefighters.
Two things
Firefighting is like soldiery. 95% boredom 5% pant crapping adrenaline with a chance of death.
Pay them a full time wage FFS. There’s enough working people who spend all day being paid for doing fuck all. If they spend 1 hour saving someones life I’m happy for my taxes to pay them the other 39 for drinking coffee.
Secondly, this strikes me if the attitude of ‘always be working’ if you’re sat down you’re not working. Forgetting that you’re paying for time as well as labour.
My ex husband is a firefighter and honestly the conditions have always been terrible. Not even so much with pay but aftercare when dealing with a traumatic event.
They’ve been given faulty breathing apparatus and failed in their duty of care regarding so many things.
It got to the point that I genuinely thought I would lose him to suicide and it put a massive strain on us.
It’s a horrible, toxic environment and the people out there are risking life and limb everyday.
23 comments
I got sacked from my job as a firefighter…. I tried to fight fire with fire.
Good luck to them, they deserve it.
Who’s next, I wonder?
Yet the lads who decide their level of wages have theirs tied to the top rate of pay a civil servant gets, and every raise is took.
Good, I hope the fire fighters get what is needed/wanted.
>There are currently around 3,000 firefighters nationwide. Some two-thirds of this number — over 2,000 — are employed as retained rather than full-time firefighters. Retained fire service staff are paid an annual retainer to be available for call-outs, but their pay depends on the number of incidents they attend.
>They are allowed to work part-time jobs to supplement their income, but do so knowing that their second job must be within 2.5km of their fire station.
>Retained firefighters must also live within that same distance from the fire station they are attached to in order to respond “within five minutes” of being paged to report to work.
>“Retained firefighters are on call 24/7. They can never have a drink, can never stray too far from home, because unlike full-time firefighters, they don’t work shifts,” Mr McFadden said.
>“They have to be available constantly. Remember the Covid 2km restriction rule in 2020 when every person in Ireland couldn’t travel outside of that radius? Welcome to the world of a retained firefighter. You are a prisoner in your own town.
That’s insane, I don’t blame them.
Good luck lads, fight the good fight
I’m really confused with how the fire brigade works, they’re paid using public funds, but bill you like a private company if you get a call out?
It’s ridiculous that those who are running into burning buildings to save people are paid so poorly. A fire fighter should never have to work two jobs to make ends meet.
Jesus I never knew about that system. What a shite state of affairs.
My brother in law is a retained firefighter. My sister has 3 small kids, and she’s basically a prisoner. She can’t leave the kids with him and run into the shops for an errand. She can never leave him with the kids because if he gets a beeper alert to go, he has to run out the door. Their lives revolve around his part-time job. They have very few weekends away or nights off the whole year.
Just another essential service falling to shit under FG/FF.
How about they use some of the budget surplus to provide a full time fire service?
Been working as a retained firefighter for a few years now if anyone has any questions about the service or how it works. Will be as transparent as possible.
The biggest issue we are having is pay (obviously, retainer starts at less than 9k per year for 24/7 on call hours). Time off, if I want to go into my closest city, go out for dinner or go to the cinema I need to ask for time off, station officer is as generous as he can be but with a max 10 and currently 7 firefighters it’s not always possible to get time off. Recruitment, this stems from the other two issues but one of my neighbouring stations was down to 4 active members recently (now 5) and have not been able to get anyone to join.
feel free to ask questions, the more the public know the more support I think we will get in this fight for basic quality of life changes.
Reading the insane requirements I couldn’t believe they expect anyone to do that job, as you can’t go anywhere. Only way anyone would do that is if it was well paid and/or you got free accommodation in the station. Then I saw the wages. What the actual…
I’m a single, unmarried man who never plans on having kids. I live close to my local station. I lost my job last year. I would also love a job that was a positive contribution to society, instead of just making profits for some other prick.
I should be a prime candidate (and the station near me has a sign out front saying they’re recruiting). But I wouldn’t even consider applying unless the wages were (at minimum) trebled. The conditions are too restrictive and you could die or be seriously injured on any call out, not to mention possibly see (and smell) some incredibly awful scenes that would stay with you for life.
The budget surplus should be used towards the fire service and politicians wages should be cut and the savings given to these lads. But nothing will be done until we have a tragedy like a fire in a block of flats or something.
Jesus just read through it.
Amazed they haven’t gone in strike before. They should go on strike long term – those terms of employment are utterly ridiculous. Working delivering newspapers would give you more of a work life balance and better prospects.
My Dads a retained station officer since 2000 and he’s required to retire in a few years but he isn’t entitled to a pension :(. Luckily my mams paid a lot better so we’ll probably be fine
Solidarity to my brothers and sisters in the south from NIFRS.
Not to mention (not in all circumstances) one of the most ironic things is the local authorities expect employers to let you go to a fire call at a moments notice but won’t hire you as part of the county council in case it takes you away from your duties…. The fuck?!
Doesn’t seem to be much of a life working that job. If the money isn’t good and work life is bad, what’s the draw?
100% support for the firefighters.
Two things
Firefighting is like soldiery. 95% boredom 5% pant crapping adrenaline with a chance of death.
Pay them a full time wage FFS. There’s enough working people who spend all day being paid for doing fuck all. If they spend 1 hour saving someones life I’m happy for my taxes to pay them the other 39 for drinking coffee.
Secondly, this strikes me if the attitude of ‘always be working’ if you’re sat down you’re not working. Forgetting that you’re paying for time as well as labour.
My ex husband is a firefighter and honestly the conditions have always been terrible. Not even so much with pay but aftercare when dealing with a traumatic event.
They’ve been given faulty breathing apparatus and failed in their duty of care regarding so many things.
It got to the point that I genuinely thought I would lose him to suicide and it put a massive strain on us.
It’s a horrible, toxic environment and the people out there are risking life and limb everyday.
https://highlandradio.com/2023/05/15/retained-firefighters-to-embark-on-industrial-action-after-talks-break-down/