Victorian fire chiefs fear good sense is being extinguished

DANIEL Andrews is on the verge of handing the United Firefighters Union and its secretary, Peter Marshall, a huge if incomplete victory in its long-running pay dispute.

The fire services fear it is only a matter of time until Daniel Andrews does a deal with the union.

• Premier caving in to firefighters’ union

DANIEL Andrews is on the verge of handing the United Firefighters Union and its secretary, Peter Marshall, a huge if incomplete victory in its long-running pay dispute.

For 18 months, emergency services minister Jane Garrett has struggled to reach an agreement with the UFU that would give firefighters a decent pay increase and at the same time avoid handing the union control of the Country Fire Authority, via a “consultative committee” able to veto every management decision.

She hasn’t been able to do it.

In the past year, the government has settled new enterprise bargaining agreements with police, ambulance officers, train drivers and the state’s public servants.

Over that time, the UFU hasn’t moved an inch. It’s Marshall’s way, or else.

Now, with a federal election looming and the UFU threatening to campaign against Labor, the fire services are terrified that Garrett has been sidelined and that Premier Daniel Andrews is on the verge of caving in.

Indeed, so worried are Victoria’s fire chiefs that in recent days the chairs and CEOs of both the CFA and the Metropolitan Fire Brigade wrote to the government warning that giving the UFU what it wants on “consultation” would be a disaster.

Yet several senior sources have told the Herald Sun that this is what the premier’s office is proposing should happen.

One source described it as an attempt to “ram through”, and that it was possible that the CFA board and its CEO, Lucinda Nolan, would simply refuse to sign any such agreement.

The premier’s office was insisting last night no deal had yet been done. The fire services fear it is only a matter of time.

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