Hundreds of seasonal firefighters from all over Greece protested outside the Ministry of Climate Crisis and Civil Protection Thursday.
The main demands are that seasonal firefighting contracts be converted into full-year contracts, and the removal of age limits on certain positions. The firefighters demanded a meeting with the head of the ministry, Vassilis Kikilias. Some firefighters entered into the ministry building to demand a meeting, and many stated the intent to spend the night in tents outside the ministry.
Some 2,500-some seasonal firefighters’ contracts ended today, the final day of October, meaning these workers will not be hired again until the next fire season begins in May. Seasonal firefighting contracts stretch from May to October.
Firefighters argued that their experience and expertise are not being utilized in a country with frequent forest fires, and they were being forced to file for unemployment or find second jobs to make ends meet.
Evangelos Tsoukalas, head of the Seasonal Firefighters’ Association of Greece, told the Associated Press that many of its members with over six years of experience had been unable to apply for positions in special firefighting units, because the age limit is 35. “There is an age cut-off [for those positions]. And now our contracts are up, so we are being thrown out as seasonal firefighters,” Tsoukalas said.
Furthermore, the firefighters complain about thousands of vacancies in the fire service– 4,000 vacancies according to their count– that need to be filled for the country to properly fight fires.
In regards to the protest, Minister of Climate Crisis and Civil Protection Vassilis Kikilias released a statement Thursday: “As I promised, after the end of the firefighting season I will hold a meeting with the representatives of the seasonal contract firefighters. And this is what I will do next Wednesday 6/11.”
He continued: “At the meeting we will thoroughly discuss their needs, and concerns, before proceeding to the tender, within the framework of Presidential Decree 36/2019, which as everyone knows, was the subject of a proposal by the SYRIZA government and was issued in April 2019.”
Both Minister Kikilias and Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis have called 2024 the most difficult firefighting season in 40 years.
“We had consistently higher than average temperatures, extremely long droughts, strong winds after a period of drought, and little snow in the mountains,” said Mitsotakis in a briefing before parliament last week. “However, these are the conditions that, in all probability, as a result of the climate crisis, we will be called upon to deal with with increasing frequency from now on.”
According to Meteo.gr, this summer was the hottest ever on record for Greece. Fires broke out from the islands in the South to the mountains in the North– about 440,000 acres burned across Greece this summer and into the fall. Through September and into the first days of October there were still blazes across the country.
In a statement last week Minister Kikilias noted: “The fire fighting season has actually lasted 6 months. 6 months of huge battles by our firefighters, our volunteers, Civil Protection, aerial means, but also the rest of the security bodies and the Armed Forces who have fought more than 8,000 fires, 200 of which were very serious.”
