Firefighters in Tipperary suspend action as breakthrough occurs in negotiations

Tipperary's Retained Firefighters have suspended their industrial action following a breakthrough in talks at the Work Place Relations Commission yesterday afternoon.

Talks continued until midnight on Wednesday night, and a proposal is now set to be presented to the Firefighters and put to a ballot later this month or in early September.

The proposal includes a substantial improvement on basic pay, and a commitment to address other issues raised during the dispute including recruitment and rostering concerns.

The deal sees the guaranteed element of pay for new entrants almost doubled to provide a minimum of guaranteed earnings.

A new entrant will be guaranteed to earn €18,500 in their first year and a shorter incremental scale will be in place. Existing staff will also benefit from the changes.

In addition, firefighters will earn additional income from call-outs and other work in pre-incident planning and community engagement. Going forward the employer will now cover the cost of obtaining a C Licence which costs approximately €2,500.

Further issues such as Local Authority hiring policies and the retirement age are to be discussed in the weeks ahead.