Attributable to Peter Marshall, Branch Secretary, United Firefighters Union of Australia (Victorian Branch)
This is a further statement to the one issued this morning in response to Commissioner Freeman’s letter. The following matters remain unresolved under his leadership, and are the substance behind the overwhelming vote of no confidence in the Commissioner.
Enterprise bargaining
After more than two years of enterprise bargaining, there is still no settled enterprise agreement. During that process, clauses that had already been agreed were reopened, and Fire Rescue Victoria departed from the position it had recorded before the Fair Work Commission — that all matters were agreed other than wages and allowances — forcing the parties into expensive arbitration. FRV has also walked back approximately $117 million in agreed efficiencies.
The following matters also remain unresolved:
- The removal of firefighters’ income protection.
- Operational firefighters have gone without a pay increase for six years.
- Corporate and administrative staff left without a pay increase for approximately seven years, while Commissioner Freeman and his Executive Leadership Team have received substantial pay increases.
- An ageing fleet of approximately 140 appliances that fail in service on a daily basis, with no public acknowledgement or remediation — including an appliance failure at Tarneit, where a member of the public was trapped in a house fire and the attending fire truck did not work. The union holds photographs of the failed appliance.
- The continued absence of mobile data terminals on appliances, contrary to a coronial recommendation made following a fatality in which an appliance was dispatched to the wrong address.
- The procurement of non-compliant flash hoods, and the tolerance of non-compliant hoods on the fireground — hoods that are not of the required standard and that expose firefighters to known carcinogens.
- The failure to deliver fire stations for the growth communities of Clyde North (notwithstanding a sod-turning ceremony) and Armstrong Creek.
- The cancellation of the Station Officer promotional course.
- The expenditure of approximately $16 million on legal fees while each of the above remains unresolved.
These are not the only failures. There are many other critical matters that have occurred — or, more to the point, have failed to occur — under Commissioner Freeman’s leadership. That is why there is such a high level of no confidence in his leadership. It is our belief that he should resign.