Interior ensures social peace with the Fire Department

The agreement to improve the working conditions of the Generalitat Firefighters is already a reality.

Oliver Thansan
Oliver Thansan
21 July 2023 Friday 11:08
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Interior ensures social peace with the Fire Department

The agreement to improve the working conditions of the Generalitat Firefighters is already a reality. 88.5% of the workers participated in the vote and 66.8% decided to sign the agreement (1,289 people).

The consensus has been reached after months of negotiation between the workers and the Department of the Interior and has avoided a situation of conflict and mobilizations that was very frequent until now.

The UGT, CC.OO., IAC-Catac, Intersindical and CSIF have been the five Firefighters unions that have signed the agreement to improve the conditions of the corps. The previous pact, closed in 2019, was opposed by one of the unions.

The agreements establish a series of measures to reduce gender inequalities in the body and facilitate family and work reconciliation.

Among the gender policies, the extension of maternity and paternity or adoption leave to single-parent families stands out; the adaptation of the workplace due to pregnancy or breastfeeding; more flexible hours for reasons of reconciliation until the children are 14 years old, and recoverable hours for women who have endometriosis or painful periods that temporarily disable their productivity.

The agreement also establishes other measures to reconcile personal and family life and makes the management of timetable planning and the working day more flexible. In this sense, a professional career plan of the body will be applied; a comprehensive occupational risk prevention system will be implemented; an overlap supplement will be created to compensate for the time between the end of one shift and the other and a recognition of staff as night workers will be compensated.

To reach the number of 3,300 firefighters in the Generalitat Fire Service in 2026 and 3,600 in 2030, the current rate of annual calls for 250 professionals will be maintained.

In addition, calls will be published for the professional categories of corporal, sergeant, officer and sub-inspector every two years until the number that guarantees current needs is stabilized.

The general director of Fire Prevention and Extinction, Joan Delort, has highlighted the importance of this agreement and the fact that "it is the result of months of intense negotiation and the goodwill of all parties".