Valencia’s regional wildfire service is to gain 64 posts under the funding agreement announced on Friday by the regional government and union representatives. The largest share goes to helicopter crews, with 42 professionals intended to complete a third shift; the other 22 jobs are assigned to the operational structure. The measure provides a specific increase in capacity, although no recruitment timetable has yet been published.
The package is worth €15.4 million. Four million euros is allocated to the new posts and €8.7 million to pay improvements for staff assigned to firefighting, reaching up to €458 gross a month depending on grade. Administrative staff are due an increase of €300 a month. These figures describe the maximum and the groups covered, rather than a flat rise for every employee.
The third helicopter shift is the change with the clearest impact on emergency response. CSIF said after the agreement was signed that the 42 posts would allow the shift to operate fully within SGISE, the publicly owned company managing the service. These crews travel by helicopter to difficult terrain and form part of the region-wide public service responding to wildfires and other emergencies.
The deal follows a summer of warnings about staffing gaps
The extra capacity addresses a problem raised during the latest fire season. On 13 September, CSIF said it had reported incidents involving helicopter units to the Labour Inspectorate and alleged that some gaps had been filled by ground-crew staff without the specific training required to work with helicopters. This was a union allegation, not a finding by the inspectorate, but it put the third shift among the service’s most urgent demands.
The agreement goes beyond recruitment. A further €2.7 million is reserved for negotiations on SGISE’s first company-wide collective agreement. Those talks must settle issues not resolved by the budget announcement, including a common framework for working hours, grades and employment conditions. The two milestones should therefore remain separate: staffing and pay measures have been agreed, but the collective agreement still has to be negotiated and signed.
Regional rules define the wildfire brigade as an essential service whose remit extends beyond summer fires: it is responsible for firefighting and intervention in other emergencies across the Valencian Community. The service also includes intervention, logistics, planning and analysis functions. The 22 structural posts will not join helicopter crews, but they support the coordination needed to deploy the operation.
The practical test will come when SGISE publishes or implements its revised staffing plan, advertises and fills the posts, and confirms when the third shift will be fully operational. The formal opening of collective bargaining will be the second marker. Until then, the deal amounts to committed funding and a route forward; it does not mean that all 64 new staff are already at work.
Original editorial illustration about coordination and reinforcement of the wildfire service. This AI-generated conceptual image does not document a real fire, place or operation.