Country Fire Authority volunteers banned from leading strike teams with paid firefighters
Some of Victoria’s most experienced firefighters will be sidelined at major bushfires this summer, with CFA volunteers now banned from leading strike teams if they include paid career staff.
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Country Fire Authority volunteers have been banned from leading strike teams sent in to tackle major bushfires if their crew includes any career firefighters.
As a dangerous fire season looms, the Herald Sun can reveal some of the state’s most experienced firefighters will be sidelined from spearheading integrated teams at out-of-control blazes because of an industrial agreement that was never approved.
The situation became apparent during last month’s New South Wales fire emergency when a veteran CFA volunteer was dumped as the leader of a strike team sent to battle a bushfire around Grafton.
The crew was told Ray Dickson, a 40-year veteran, could not be in charge because there were paid firefighters in the team, and a career officer was given the job instead.
Volunteer Fire Brigades Victoria chief Adam Barnett is demanding an investigation into the “blatant overreach” and “appalling treatment” of volunteers, as authorities brace for potentially disastrous conditions this summer after a dry winter.
Premier Daniel Andrews has denied it was a widespread issue and Victoria’s fire services were not at war with each other.
“The Chief Officer of the CFA has made it very clear this was an error and that there was a couple of thousand firefighters out there, deployed fighting fires in NSW and Queensland, this was one isolated case,” Mr Andrews said.
“When it’s at its most dangerous and when they are needed most, they all pitch in. They all work together unconcerned about whether someone is getting paid or not, or if someone is wearing green overalls because they are forest firefighters, or MFB, or CFA.”
The CFA is standing firm because the Andrews Government is believed to have told it to implement operational changes included in a controversial pay deal that was never formalised by the Fair Work Commission.
Government ministers and CFA chiefs had promised nothing would change for volunteers as Labor backed the union-friendly agreement and then restructured the state’s fire services.
Volunteers now fear community safety will be put at risk by the new leadership rules.
“In all emergency services, but especially in fire services, mixing operational doctrine with industrial side deals is a recipe for disaster,” Mr Barnett said.
“We are heartbroken that a small number of individuals could even contemplate playing these petty and divisive power games during an active emergency.”
Mr Dickson, who had led strike teams on numerous missions, said he was “extremely disappointed” the matter was not sorted out before he headed north.
“It could have been done a lot better. It did come out of the blue,” he said when contacted by the Herald Sun.
There were no complaints about his replacement, and fire services sources said career and volunteer firefighters had worked alongside each other for years without chain-of-command issues during a bitter industrial dispute.
A CFA spokeswoman said a career firefighter crew was “erroneously allocated to a volunteer-led strike team” in NSW.
“The matter was quickly resolved and the volunteer member continued to support the strike team from the command vehicle,” she said.
She said CFA operational policy now dictated that “a strike team leader who oversees a crew or crews of career firefighters must be a career firefighter”.
The spokeswoman said there was “no significant departure from prior practice” and added: “These arrangements apply only to strike teams and do not apply to command arrangements at other everyday incidents.”
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But Mr Barnett said: “We will seek action not only for Ray but to ensure this is never allowed to occur again.”
“Our work is dangerous enough without introducing any additional complexities,” he said.
“Any terms or directives that lead to conflict, ambiguity or allow self-interest to be placed above that of protecting the public have no place in our emergency services.”
“Any term or direction that can allow anyone to discriminate against volunteer firefighters or subjugate them to this appalling treatment should be denounced and withdrawn.”
Emergency Services Minister Lisa Neville said almost 2000 Victorian firefighters recently deployed interstate “did an incredible job lending their service and expertise when and where it was needed most”.
Opposition emergency services spokesman Brad Battin said volunteers were “being treated like second class citizens” by Labor.