South-west CFA volunteers in protest

The volunteers will join a motorcade of brigade-owned vehicles through Melbourne on Saturday to support the CFA’s and Emergency Services Minister Jane Garrett’s opposition to an industrial relations claim by career firefighters.

The Volunteer Fire Brigades Victoria (VFBV), which represents the volunteers, fears an Enterprise Bargaining Agreement (EBA) sought by the United Firefighters Union (UFU) will marginalise volunteers.

The VFBV fears Premier Daniel Andrews has sidelined Ms Garrett and the CFA in the EBA negotiations and done a deal with UFU Victorian secretary Peter Marshall to accept the UFU’s claims.

However both Mr Andrews and UFU secretary Peter Marshall have denied an agreement has been reached and said negotiations were continuing.

VFBV board member Jill Parker, of Mortlake, said she was concerned about the UFU’s demand that seven paid firefighters attend at every CFA fireground.

Ms Parker had concerns that country volunteers, who were close to a fire, might have to wait for paid firefighters located further away before they could fight the fire.

However Mr Marshall said there was no call for paid firefighters to be the first to fight fires.

The call for seven paid firefighters only applied to 32 fire stations with an integrated pool of career and volunteer firefighters and would depend on the demand for fire services at the time, he said.

VFBV chief executive Andrew Ford said the CFA and Ms Garrett had so far refused ”to surrender proper management and operational functions or to marginalise volunteers as the union demanded.”

Mr Ford said it appeared “the Premier went behind the Minister’s back and reached a deal with Peter Marshall which gives the union virtually all it wants.” 

But Mr Marshall said no deal had been done with Mr Andrews. He also said the UFU had no desire to replace CFA volunteers with paid firefighters.