(Note added 26th March 2017: This article was originally published 7th October 2016. Some things have changed since then but the overall situation and need for reform remains current. I have added some further notes below to mark out what has changed since October.)
News that CFA career firefighters may petition to move en masse to the MFB should not surprise those who read my story, The Turf War Mentality. In that article I mentioned briefly the possibility of solving this dispute by moving CFA staff to the MFB. It’s worth a look in some more detail at what this means.
The petition and its preamble are included at the end of this article.
The petition is a powerful statement of the fact that CFA career firefighters feel the CFA is unable to offer them a fair and safe workplace, particularly if the proposed amendment to the Fair Work Act is enacted. Unrelenting attacks from the people with whom they are supposed to share a workplace have driven them to this point.
(Note added 26th March 2017: the amendment was passed by federal parliament on 10th October 2016, with the support of Pauline Hanson’s One Nation, Nick Xenophon Team, Derryn Hinch and David Leyonhjelm. At least some of this support is suspected to be the result of backroom deal-making. As a result, CFA firefighters still lack the key safety protections contained in the proposed EBA.)
But what does it mean? Of course, CFA currently can’t operate without its 1026 operational staff, and MFB has no use at present for this many more firefighters. Granting CFA staff their wish would mean CFA could not provide the necessary service in those dense urban areas where staff are currently stationed. Those areas would have to be transferred to MFB jurisdiction along with their staff. (Since that would include regional towns and cities, many have suggested a name change — something along the lines of Victorian Fire & Rescue.) The result would mirror the arrangement of the fire services in every other state of Australia.
This is, in fact, what the existing structure of MFB-plus-CFA is supposed to achieve. The MFB came about because it was found as early as the 1840s that a staffed fire service is necessary for effective service delivery in dense urban areas. And the geographical segregation of that paid service from the volunteer service came about in 1891 out of the necessity to end a counterproductive and downright dangerous turf war that had reached the point of violence.
History repeats, and here we are again. Career firefighters once more find themselves working alongside volunteers, ‘integrated’ into CFA brigades. And whilst this has frequently yielded a rich and rewarding collaboration for all concerned, the 1880s-era turf warfare mentality has persisted in pockets and has long found voice through VFBV.
During the negotiation of previous EBAs, the turf warriors didn’t win much attention. But this time the Liberals and Nationals saw an opportunity, and the issue exploded. The 1880s-style urban turf warriors were emboldened, and thousands of well-meaning rural volunteers have also been recruited to the cause, through a campaign of hysterical fear-mongering run by the Liberals, Nationals, VFBV, Jane Garrett and a compliant media. (See my previous story for details.)
As a result, career firefighters have been subject to vicious demonisation by the media and open hatred from the volunteers they are supposed to work alongside. They have been called thugs in the media, abused face-to-face in public and one was even handed a bullet. Their family members, too, have faced abuse. All of this has taken a psychological toll upon them.
But the attack has gone beyond rhetoric, to directly target the legal rights of career firefighters, in ways that no other Australian workers must endure. The VFBV is challenging the EBA in a drawn-out process at the Supreme Court, and the federal coalition government is seeking to give the VFBV ongoing rights to interfere with firefighter EBAs in future. (Note added 26th March 2017: VFBV withdrew its Supreme Court case after it became clear that the federal Fair Work Act amendment would effectively block the EBA, which it now appears to have achieved.) It is apparent from the petition that is circulating that this is the last straw for many CFA career firefighters.
Integration is dead, killed by VFBV.
That’s the feeling I’ve heard expressed again and again by CFA firefighters, both staff and volunteer. Career firefighters don’t want to take over the CFA. They just want their rights to physical and psychological safety at work, and if they can’t have those rights with CFA, they want to transfer to somewhere where they can. From what I have heard, MFB firefighters would welcome them with open arms.
Back to 1891?
If the petition was successful, the MFB boundary would need to be adjusted to include all areas needing a staffed fire service. Not only would this mean all career firefighters and their communities would then enjoy the benefits of safe systems of work including seven-firefighter dispatch. It would also mean that, suddenly, the CFA could be what the Act says it should be, and what large numbers of volunteers want it to be.
The ‘C’ in ‘CFA’ stands for Country, and the CFA Act vests the CFA with authority to provide the fire service for “the country area of Victoria”. When first created in 1891 (as CFBB), CFA was indeed only responsible for country areas, and in 1891, it indeed operated the way the coalition’s 2011 legislation says it should:
first and foremost a volunteer-based organisation, in which volunteer officers and members are supported by employees
The urbanisation of some of CFA’s territory has caused it to deviate from this legislation, and service its newly urban territory with a staff-led response. This has progressed to the point where staff now respond to a majority of CFA’s calls statewide. Moving the (potentially renamed) MFB boundary to incorporate all staffed areas would bring the CFA back in line with its legislated role as a volunteer-based country fire service.
Surely this would please everyone. The public in outer suburbs and regional cities would be assured of getting the same first-class modern fire service presently enjoyed by those in inner suburbs. (Potentially the people concerned would also save money: the fire levy is lower in the MFB area.) Career firefighters would be free to secure their workplace rights and safety through collective bargaining, without interference from a third party. And those volunteers who fear a staff “takeover” need worry no more: the CFA firefighting force would be 100% volunteer.
It should be easy, right?
I suspect it may not be. Support for adjusting the MFB boundary has already been expressed from such divergent corners as former MFB Chair Adrian Nye, Emergency Services Commissioner Craig Lapsley, and UFU Secretary Peter Marshall. Nye’s comments emphasised the fact that this reform would ease tensions between career and volunteer firefighters. But certain parties may resist such a change.
As integrated CFA areas (currently serviced by 34 of 1200 CFA fire stations) became staffed MFB (or VF&R) areas, the VFBV turf warriors would lose a small amount of geographical turf. This would offend their ideology of volunteer pride, which has even prompted at least one VFBV office-holder to call for the opposite of this reform: Eric Collier calls for volunteers to be introduced to the MFB! Indeed, VFBV has already expressed its opposition to adjustment of the MFB area. Shying away from publicly invoking volunteer pride, VFBV’s argument rests on the provision of bushfire surge capacity by suburban volunteers — without considering other ways in which this might be achieved.
Another source of resistance might be found in the Liberals and Nationals. After all, the devastating havoc they have wrought for clear political and ideological gain will not be possible to bring about in the same ways in future. That’s the why CFA firefighters are asking to move. It’s also why the Liberals and Nationals might oppose it. And, perhaps, invent creative and deceitful ways to incite rural volunteers to oppose it, too, and to punish Labor, should they propose to fix the boundary.
It’ll be interesting to see.
Cover letter to the petition:
Hi all,
Last night I was speaking to a Senior Station Officer of 30 years service say he had enough of CFA and next opportunity he gets would second to the MFB. This saddened me, but didn’t surprise me as it reflects the sentiment of many. Many of us have read VFBV transcripts or submissions to the Senate Inquiry learning how our conditions of employment will be wiped out if the Turnball Government Bill is passed.
These conditions of employment that we have bargained for in good faith to achieve would be able to be challenged by external bodies such as the VFBV, or any organisation purporting to represent volunteers. Every condition of employment from consultation to hours of work, to rank and promotion structures will be able to be challenged in the Fair Work Commission.
VFBV have a long list of clauses in their submission to the senate inquiry that will be gone if this bill is passed, and those will be the tip of the iceberg. It follows on from the work of the Liberal Napthine Government that refused to include two-thirds of our current 2010 clauses in the proposed EBA. The Turnball government seek to continue this, using this Bill, and VFBV as the trigger.
Due to the integrated model we are employed in we will no longer collectively bargain for our conditions the way every other fire service does, that does not have a volunteer component. In fact no other Australian worker will have a third party that will determine employee conditions of employment. This Senior Station Officer, and I, are not alone when we say we feel targeted, attacked and treated like a second class citizens on a scale only seen in under developed countries.
I have put together a petition which is attached that I intend on giving to the State Government if the Senate passes this legislation later next week. The petition states that as a result of the legislation CFA Career Professional firefighters no longer want to work for the CFA and are requesting to have our employment transferred to the MFB.
I am joining the Senior Station Officer to seek a secondment with the MFB or alternatively want my employment transferred to the MFB if this Bill is passed. It is such a shame it has come this. I love working for the CFA and enjoy the great relationship with so many proud volunteers, most of which are ashamed about the direction VFBV are taking.
Petition:
To the Legislative Assembly of Victoria,
The petition of professional career firefighters employed by the Country Fire Authority (CFA) draw to the attention of the house that as a result of the Fair Work Amendment (Respect for Emergency Services Volunteers) Bill 2016 the provisions of Enterprise Agreements pertaining to employees of the Country Fire Authority that have been bargained for in good faith will now be able to be challenged by external bodies such as the VFBV or any other organisation purporting to represent volunteers. Every condition of employment for CFA career firefighters will be susceptible to a challenge in the Fair Work Commission any time a volunteer organisation or a volunteer determines it has or likely to have an impact on them.
We the undersigned CFA career firefighters believe we are being unfairly treated. Effectively we no longer have the same rights to collectively bargain with our employer that every other Australian worker has, and we no longer have certainty in our conditions of employment. As a result, we the undersigned CFA career firefighters request that the Victorian State Government either second us or transfer our employment to the Metropolitan Fire and Emergency Services Board.
