The Union is increasingly concerned at the length of time the Fire Service is taking in filing its case on appeal to the Court of Appeal.

The Fire Service has 6 months from the date of being granted leave to appeal to file its case. Leave to appeal was granted in November 2005.

Members will recall that as part of the appeal process, the Fire Service applied to the Employment Court for a stay on the Employment Court Decision until determined by the
Court of Appeal.

As part of that process, the Union did not oppose the application (the Union did not support it either), but simply agreed to abide the Decision of the Court. This position
was adopted subsequent to discussion and agreement with the Fire Service that they would process their application to the Court of Appeal with urgency.

Clearly the Fire Service is not proceeding with urgency, and the Union has formally notified the Chief Executive of its concern and asked him to honour the agreement made.
Members Leaving the Fire Service

a) Days in Lieu
Members who have left the Fire Service subsequent to 1 April 2004 will be entitled to payment for Days in Lieu accrued, if the Union wins its case. Administration arrangements for this will need to be agreed.

b) P.C.A. Allowance
The Fire Service initially adopted a position that any member who had completed the P.C.A. but left the Fire Service prior to the P.C.A. payment date – 26 April – would not receive the P.C.A. Allowance.

The Union disputed this position and the Fire Service has now agreed to pay the allowance to such members, provided they make the appropriate claim at the time of
leaving.

Transferring Public Holidays to Other Dates
There still appears to be some confusion over the application of Section 45 of the Holidays Act for the last Christmas/New Year period. The Union’s understanding was outlined in two Newsletters – 22 December 2005 and again on 10 February 2006.

Section 45 of the Act provides inter alia –

If Christmas or New year’s Day:

• Falls on a Sunday and that day would otherwise be a working day for the employee, the Public Holiday is treated as falling on that day i.e. the Sunday.
• Falls on a Sunday and that day would not otherwise be a working day for the employee, the Public Holiday is treated as falling on the following Tuesday.
  
  What this means for the 2005/06 Christmas/New Year period when Christmas and New Year’s Day fell on a Sunday is as follows:
  
• Blue, Red and Green Watches worked on 25 December. For those Watches the Public Holiday is observed on the actual Public Holiday (i.e. 25 December).
• Brown Watch did not work on 25 December and therefore for that Watch, the Public Holiday is transferred to Tuesday 27 December.
• Brown Watch was rostered to work on 27 December and therefore for that Watch, 27 December is treated as the Public Holiday.

No person working overtime on 27 December will have that overtime calculated at Public Holiday rates.

Blue, Red and Green Watches worked on 25 December and that is the day observed as the Public Holiday.

Brown Watch did not work on 25 December but worked a normal shift on 27 December and therefore for that Watch, 27 December is treated as the Public Holiday.

• Blue and Green Watches worked on 1 January and therefore for those Watches, the Public Holiday is observed on the actual Public Holiday i.e. 1
  January.
• Brown and Red Watches did not work on 1 January 2005, therefore the Public Holiday is transferred to 3 January 2006.
• Red Watch worked a normal shift on 3 January and therefore that day is treated as if it was a Public holiday.
• Any member on Brown Watch working an overtime shift on 3 January will have that overtime calculated as if the day was a Public Holiday.
• Any member of Blue or Green Watch who worked overtime on 3 January, will have the overtime calculated as for a regular Tuesday. For them, 1 January (when they worked normally) was observed as a Public Holiday.

The Union’s Court action claims a Day in Lieu for all normal shifts worked on a Public Holiday, or the day observed as a Public Holiday.