CFA volunteers’ anger at broken promises as merge looms
Just weeks out from a merge with the MFB, volunteer firefighters say they have been let down by a raft of broken promises and fear the upcoming changes will turn the CFA into a “second class service”. And there are concerns the dysfunction could prove fatal in emergency situations.
VIC News
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Angry volunteer firefighters say they have been betrayed by the state government and sidelined in the organisation they are supposed to run.
From next week the CFA’s career staff will be merged with the MFB to form a new service — Fire Rescue Victoria.
But a bitter dispute is poised to boil over, with many of the state’s 54,000 volunteer firefighters fed up over a lack of consultation ahead of the change.
They say the move will also leave the CFA’s unpaid volunteers subject to the paid firefighters’ enterprise agreement and union interference.
They fear the reforms will turn the CFA into a “second class service” and that volunteers will leave the organisation in record numbers.
And there are concerns the dysfunction could prove fatal in emergency situations.
Volunteer Fire Brigades Victoria chief Adam Barnett said volunteers felt let down by a raft of broken promises.
A major point of anger is a proposal that FRV officers seconded to the CFA will wear FRV uniforms instead of CFA livery.
The 229 FRV officers seconded to the CFA will also run the CFA’s operations, despite a promise the organisation would be restored to a fully volunteer service.
Mr Barnett said anger had flared because of a repeated lack of consultation with volunteer firefighters.
He said volunteers were also left frustrated by government moves to expand the number of integrated stations from 35 to 38 in what he dubbed a “cheap land grab”.
“Nobody wants a return to the bitter and acrimonious days of dispute, but equally we must think long and hard about whether we can continue to turn a blind eye to the continued attacks on your goodwill and good faith and allow volunteers to continue to be taken advantage of,” he wrote to volunteers.
“Regrettably it appears that decision makers are sending a terrible message as they return to their divisive, polarising and exclusionary ways of old.
“The message being sent is that only the most belligerent and uncompromising of agendas and voices appear to be pandered to.
“CFA volunteers and the communities they protect deserve so much better. They deserve to be treated with respect by those who are there to govern on behalf of all of us.
“They deserve promises and commitments made to them to be honoured and kept.”
Mr Barnett said the betrayal risked “breaking the hearts and backs of stalwart CFA volunteers … who put their lives on the line during this year’s devastating bushfires and whom we owe so much”.
“For many this may well be the last straw,” he wrote.
District 23 VFBV Council spokeswoman Mary-Anne Egan said the reform had increasingly turned into a return to the old division between the CFA and the Metropolitan Fire Brigade.
Police and Emergency Services minister Lisa Neville said engagement with volunteers had been a focus of the reform.
“Our focus is on supporting volunteer firefighters who are committed to their communities — not those seeking to criticise the CFA and questioning the dedication of volunteers,” she said.