Fire and Emergency received calls for 14 incidents during today’s strike

19 December 2025

Fire and Emergency New Zealand received calls for 14 incidents between 12pm and 1pm today, Friday 19 December, the time of the most recent strike action taken by members of the New Zealand Professional Firefighters Union (NZPFU).

Of these, seven incidents were in areas impacted by the strike.

Three of the seven incidents were fire alarms that did not result in a fire.

One was a smell of smoke which was discovered to be a small back yard fire and which the owner extinguished.

One was a rubbish bin fire which was extinguished by a member of the public.

Two were medical calls which were left in the hands of Hato Hone St John as per our contingency plan for this industrial action.

Deputy National Commander Megan Stiffler thanked New Zealanders for their extra care during the strike hour.

"I want to thank our 11,800 volunteers across the country, and their employers for supporting them to respond over today’s strike hour," she says.

"I would also like to thank our Operational Commanders and Communication Centre Managers, who contributed to the response.

"We are disappointed that the NZPFU has issued further strike notices for one-hour strikes at 12pm on 26 December and 2 January.

"This is rolling the dice on people’s safety. We’ve urged the NZPFU repeatedly to call off their strikes because there is no good reason for continuing to put the community in harm’s way while both parties are in facilitation."

Bargaining

Further independent facilitation with the Employment Relations Authority has been set down for 26 and 27 January in Christchurch.

"Attending independent facilitation with the Authority is the next logical step in coming to an agreement and we will participate in good faith with the NZPFU," Megan Stiffler says.

"We hope the facilitation process introduces some realism into discussions. The NZPFU’s most recent settlement proposal was more than three times higher than our offer prior to facilitation, which we believe was fair, sustainable, and reasonable, and in line with other settlements across the public service.

"That settlement was a 6.2 percent increase over three years.

"This would have taken the average senior firefighter remuneration from a range of approximately $80,700-$87,400 to $85,800-$92,900 at the end of the period, excluding overtime and allowances which currently adds an average of $38,800 to annual remuneration. We believe this represents a fair and sustainable increase for our people.

"We value our people, which is why over the past decade average senior firefighter pay has cumulatively increased by 37 percent - more than 10 percent above the average increase for all workers."

Note to editors

• Fire and Emergency New Zealand and the New Zealand Professional Firefighters Union have been in bargaining talks for a collective employment agreement for paid firefighters since 16 July 2024.

• Fire and Emergency’s most recent offer made prior to facilitation was a 6.2 percent increase over three years and compares favourably with equivalent public sector agreements.

• Fire and Emergency considers the offer to be sustainable, balance cost of living pressures being faced by individuals alongside fiscal pressures faced by Fire and Emergency and consistent with the Government Workforce Policy Statement.

• The previous 2022 collective employment agreement settlement provided a cumulative wage increase of up to 24 percent over a three-year period for paid firefighters.

• Fire and Emergency has also been investing in replacing our fleet. We’ve taken delivery of 317 new trucks since 2017 and have another 78 on order. This includes taking possession of 15 new firefighting trucks which are bound for metropolitan paid firefighters over the next few months.

• We are currently spending over $20 million per year on replacement trucks. There is also a significant programme of station upgrades underway, as well as investment in training.

• For the 2025/26 financial year, Fire and Emergency’s operating budget is $857.9 million. Of that operating budget, 59 percent will be spent directly on the frontline, while another 32 percent is spent on frontline enablers. This means that over 90 percent of Fire and Emergency’s budget is spent on the frontline and the people directly supporting the frontline.