THE Victorian Farmers Federation has backed Country Fire Authority volunteers in their stoush with the Victorian Government over the proposed union agreement.
A large proportion of volunteer firefighters are farmers.
The VFF is calling on all concerned Victorians to put their names to a petition calling on the State Government and CFA to stand their ground and not sign the draft 2015 Enterprise Agreement (EA) with the United Firefighters Union (UFU) in its current form.
VFF president, Peter Tuohey said that the union’s “absurd demands” risk seeing 60,000 volunteers walk away from the CFA and would lead to a massive blowout in the Fire Services Property Levy (FSPL) that all farmers, country households and businesses pay on their rates bills.
He said that the draft Enterprise Agreement is littered with clauses and schedules that give the union power of veto over CFA resourcing and staffing.
The VFF is calling on all concerned Victorians to sign the petition, which pledges to call on the State Government and CFA to stand their ground and not sign the draft 2015 Enterprise Agreement (EA) with the United Firefighters Union (UFU) until:
* The full cost of the draft agreement to the CFA and State Government has been independently assessed and made public. This assessment must not only consider the impacts of additional staffing and wage increases, but also the cost of increased allowances, penalties and resources needed to employ existing UFU members, plus 509 additional paid firefighters.
* The full impact of the draft agreement on the Fire Services Property Levies that Victorian farmers, households and businesses pay to fund the CFA is independently assessed and made public. This assessment must cover the period up until at least June 30, 2019.
* All clauses are removed from the agreement that restrict the CFA Chief Officer and board from exercising their right to recruit, direct and allocate staff to where they are needed. (The draft agreement currently states the CFA must employ another 509 career firefighters by June 30, 2019).
* All clauses are removed from the agreement that force the CFA to gain UFU approval to employ casual and part-time staff, allocate resources and appliances. As it stands the CFA must gain union approval (on a case-by-case basis) before any casual or part-time staff can be employed, which acts as a major barrier to women working as paid CFA firefighters.
