CFS Volunteers Association says their members are seeking understanding from bosses, not compensation
The body representing CFS volunteers says members aren’t seeking compensation – rather, continued pay from their regular employer while away from work.
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The president of the Country Fire Service Volunteers Association has emphatically rejected the idea of government compensation for members, but is calling for more understanding from employers and politicians.
In NSW, calls for government compensation have grown as fires have ravaged that state for weeks, causing many volunteers there to spend extended time away from their jobs or their own businesses and farms.
Federal Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese last Friday said volunteers should be compensated for taking time off work with one-off payments or tax breaks.
But CFSVA president Andy Wood said such calls usually came from non-volunteers or paid firefighters who did not understand the motivations of volunteer fire fighters.
“Volunteers have never asked for that,” he said.
Mr Wood said it would be impossible to make compensation schemes equitable, given the varied situations of volunteers, and the cost would outweigh the benefit.
“It would cause a lot more problems than it cured,” he said.
Mr Wood said surveys of volunteer firies showed more than half signed up because they felt “duty-driven” as there was simply “no other option in the community”.
“It’s a corny phrase, but it’s what we do. Otherwise the whole place is going to burn down.”
However, Mr Wood called on employers, both private businesses and government departments, to show more understanding to volunteers by releasing them to fight fires and to keep paying them for that time. He said some employers released staff with pay, and others allowed annual or unpaid leave, but some refused to release employees at all.
“A lot of volunteers take holidays, that’s how they do it.”
Mr Wood said volunteers who fight fires all night cannot reasonably be expected to work the next day.
An SA Best election policy was to exempt emergency service volunteers from paying the emergency services levy. Under the former state Labor government, ESL increases were blamed for dwindling volunteer numbers, and a few brigades refused to fight fires on government land. But Mr Wood said there had not been widespread volunteer support for the anti-ESL campaign.
The CFS Foundation, which looks after volunteers who lose property, said it was taking many calls from the public wanting to help.