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City of Cape Town concludes new Fire Service collective agreement
The City of Cape Town’s Fire and Rescue Service has concluded a new collective agreement with unions, which is binding until the end of June 2030. The agreement regulates ordinary working hours, standby time, weekends and public holidays, as well as night work for Fire Services officers, fire fighters and control room staff. In recent years, we have experienced ad hoc disruptions to services, amid ongoing disagreement over the terms of the last collective agreement that was concluded in 2007. Efforts to conclude an updated agreement too were affected.
In 2020, the Labour Court ruled that the previous 24-hour shift agreement and standby allowance afforded to fire fighters was valid and binding until such time as a new collected agreement had been concluded. “We are very happy to announce that this has now happened and this morning, all signatories to the agreement put pen to paper.” The standby allowance has been a contentious issue for the past 15 years and I have personally been very keen to see this matter resolved as it was today, with the adoption of the new collective agreement for the Fire and Rescue Service, as the working conditions and happiness of our fire fighters and all other Safety and Security staff matter a great deal to me. Under the new collective agreement, fire fighters will now receive a standby allowance of 37 percent of their monthly salary, compared to the previous 22,8 percent. However, deductions will be made in the event that a staff member is not available for standby duties. This agreement has been a long time coming and while we are relieved that it has been concluded, we do hope that future negotiations will be far less cumbersome. “Residents rely on our essential services and we cannot allow our city to be left vulnerable when lives and property are at stake.” Source: Media Office, City of Cape Town |
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