THE Victorian Farmers Federation has reported a groundswell of support for its online petition demanding that the Victorian Government refrains from signing away operational control of the Country Fire Authority to the United Firefighters’ Union.
VFF president, Peter Tuohey said that Monday’s emergency Cabinet meeting has done little to quell concerns around the future of the CFA.
“Country Victoria relies on the CFA, so the Government needs to stand up to the union,” he said.
“Given the majority of the State’s farmers are volunteer firefighters, it’s not surprising that we’ve seen an outpouring of support for the CFA.
“It’s volunteers who deliver the surge capacity needed to fight the state’s major fires – such as Ash Wednesday and Black Saturday.”
Premier Daniel Andrews this week announced that negotiations would continue on the Enterprise Agreement with the union.
“The VFF is glad to see the Premier and his Cabinet are holding their ground and not caving into the union’s absurd demands,” Mr Tuohey said.
“We’ve already seen the CFA board reject the enterprise agreement with the union – and for good reason!
“The enterprise agreement is littered with clauses and schedules that give the union power of veto over CFA resourcing and staffing.”
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 that all farmers, country households and businesses pay on their rates bills.
“The cost of running the CFA will skyrocket and so will our FSPL rates, if this union deal goes ahead,” Mr Tuohey said.
“The EA states the CFA must employ another 509 career firefighters by June 30, 2019.”
The petition calls on the State Government and CFA to stand their ground and not sign the draft 2015 Enterprise Agreement with the United Firefighters Union 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.
The VFF is calling on all concerned Victorians to sign the petition, which will remain open until the dispute is resolved and can be found here: http://us4.campaign-archive1.com/?u=5381a2f70092cc72dd15e5fdd&id=d6210e1256
