Correspondence reveals police were asked to take calls on behalf of firefighters and plans were drawn up to crew a fire truck with soldiers in Dunedin during strike action this year.
On August 4, the New Zealand Professional Firefighters Union (NZPFU) gave Fire and Emergency New Zealand (Fenz) notice of two work stoppages to be held between 11am and noon on August 19 and 26.
Further strikes were called for on September 2 and 9, but were withdrawn after Internal Affairs Minister Jan Tinetti intervened on August 30 and the parties agreed to enter facilitated mediation.
After the mediator’s report was released on October 21, more strikes were called but the strikes scheduled for last Friday and yesterday were called off.
Talks are to resume tomorrow.
More strikes are scheduled for Friday, Monday and November 21, 25 and 28.
Emails between police and Fenz, released to the Otago Daily Times under the Official Information Act (OIA), show that police communicators were used to fill staffing shortages during the strike on August 26.
The NZPFU covered 99% of operational firefighters and 83% of communications centre staff, the correspondence said.
Fenz appears to have first raised the need for contingencies in an August 15 email which asked if police could "miraculously conjure ComCen operators".
Subsequent emails reveal the contingency plan for the strike on August 26 relied on managers from the communications team being available. But as three would be absent, the communications centre faced "a dire situation".
To deal with 30 estimated 111 calls, a plan was devised that Fenz communicators would dispatch appliances, but 111 calls would be answered by police.
A request was made to Spark for calls to be diverted to police during the strike.
Follow-up emails show six calls were answered by police.
A Fenz manager passed on gratitude towards police communicators.
"We understand how your team members felt being placed in the position of completing these calls," the email said.
More details have also emerged about a proposal by Fenz to use soldiers to crew fire engines during strikes.
A briefing paper, dated August 8, reveals the decision was signed off at a ministerial level
While redeploying volunteers to urban areas was considered by Fenz, it was rejected due to the risk of creating an "enduring cultural divide between career and volunteer personnel".
Fenz was confident of its ability to staff its communication centre with non-union staff during strikes, the briefing shows.
The warning order sent from Fenz to the New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF), dated August 29, requested assistance for the strikes on September 2 and 9.
"We expect that there will be some form of escalation," the warning order said.
It requested 40 military personnel to staff to staff three appliances in Auckland, two in Wellington and one each for Hamilton, Rotorua, Whanganui, Christchurch and Dunedin.
Each appliance would work under the supervision of a Fenz manager ranked assistant commander or above.
Staging areas were to be determined and help was requested from the NZDF to find suitable spots.
Soldiers were not used in any of the August strikes.
Last week, a Fenz spokeswoman said neither soldiers or police communicators were involved in contingencies for last Friday’s strike.
