CFA union crisis engulfing MFB a warning not to pour petrol on the fire, writes James Campbell

IF the MFB chief officer is right, the deal the Premier wants to impose on the CFA won’t cut the amount of time arguing in Fair Work. Far from it, writes James Campbell.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews faces new pressures over the CFA deal.

A COUPLE of weeks ago Daniel Andrews went along to the Victorian Farmers Federation to explain why he is doing what he is doing to the CFA.

Last summer he had visited bushfire affected areas, he said, and “while dedicated volunteers and careers staff were on the fire ground putting their lives at risk to keep us safe, paid officials of the CFA were at the Fair Work Commission arguing among themselves at war with their workforce.”

He said he “was not prepared to allow that to occur in what will sadly be another long, hot dry fire season this year”.

But if the Chief Officer of the MFB Peter Rau is right, the deal the Premier is determined to impose on the CFA won’t cut the amount of time its management spends arguing in Fair Work. Far from it.

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Instead, CFA management will be spending more time in the Commission than ever before.

The thing to understand about this is that Rau knows what he is talking about.

For the better part of a decade the MFB has been prevented from making any management decisions without the agreement of the United Firefighters Union.

Some decisions the UFU has vetoed, such as changes to the amount of milk and margarine made available at the Thornbury workshop, are trivial, indeed almost comic.

But as Rau points out some of the things they’ve blocked are very serious indeed.

For more than two years the UFU prevented the use of new advanced appliances. To get them into service in the middle of a heatwave the MFB spent two fruitless days negotiating with the UFU before heading off to Fair Work for another two days in an attempt to resolve the situation.

Last summer — again during a heatwave — “the union objected to the Chief Officer contacting Assistant Chief Officers and Commanders to ascertain their availability to assist if required in responding to emergencies on an extreme weather day,” Rau has warned the new Emergency Services Minister James Merlino.

Again the dispute was resolved at Fair Work in a six-hour hearing on a total fire ban day.

Why the Victorian Government would bring this sort of madness to the CFA is a mystery to everyone.

It was certainly a mystery to the departed Emergency Services Minister Jane Garrett, as well as the sacked Board of the CFA, its departed CEO Lucinda Nolan, and its Chief Fire Officer Joe Buffone.

But it gets worse.

As hard as running the MFB is at the moment, Rau is warning the Government that if the proposed provisions of the mooted CFA EBA are extended to the MFB it would “exacerbate the failings of the current agreement”.

Rau has told Merlino he believes he has “a moral and statutory obligation” to warn him of the danger this agreement represents.

It is my understanding that he has the backing of his Board.

If that is so and the Government is determined to impose this agreement on the MFB, then Rau and his Board could end up going the same way as the CFA Board and Joe Buffone.

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