Talks between Langley City and the union representing its firefighters resumed on Wednesday, March 12, at the Labour Relations Board offices in Vancouver.
It was the sixth mediation session since contract talks resumed in 2023. Another is scheduled for April 4, according to the LRB website.
An administrative tribunal whose job is to resolve issues that arise under the Labour Relations Code, the board functions like a less formal court.
Members of IAFF Local 3253 have been working under the terms of a contract that expired Dec. 31, 2021.
It provides an hourly wage ranging between $33.18 to $50.25, according to a recent City job posting online for a firefighter position, which said wages negotiated in the new collective agreement "will be applied retroactively to 2021 rates."
Hours of work were said to be an average of 42 hours a week.
Staffing levels are a major issue, with the union releasing numbers that show Langley City firefighters have the worst workload of any fire department in the Lower Mainland, handling more than triple the average number of calls.
Langley City Fire Rescue Service recorded 205 calls per suppression firefighter in 2024, up from an estimated 185 in 2023. That is far above the regional average of Metro Vancouver fire departments, who recorded 64 calls per firefighter.
It was roughly twice the next-busiest fire department, Maple Ridge, which recorded an average of 103 calls per firefighter in 2023, and close to three times the 72 reported by Langley Township firefighters that same year. As a result, in 2024, Langley City firefighters averaged 243 hours of overtime each.
Those estimates by the firefighters union were discussed at a recent Langley City council meeting, where councillors voted unanimously to fund two more firefighter positions this year.
