MFB accuses UFU of causing conflict, distrust among its members

EXCLUSIVE: THE MFB has accused the United Firefighters Union of causing conflict and distrust among its members with “patently untrue” statements.

UFU boss Peter Marshall. Picture: Nicole Garmston

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THE Metropolitan Fire Brigade has accused the United Firefighters Union of causing conflict and distrust among its members with “patently untrue” statements.

In a rare move, MFB chief executive Jim Higgins has hit back at UFU boss Peter Marshall, who regularly accuses brigade management of deliberately vilifying firefighters.

Mr Higgins told senior staff, in an email obtained by the Herald Sun, that he could not stay quiet any longer.

“I cannot ignore the ongoing claims that there is a deliberate campaign by MFB management to vilify firefighters. This is patently untrue,” Mr Higgins wrote.

“Such statements further damage relationships internally and drive distrust and conflict. They cannot continue to go uncontested.”

“There is no reason and no benefit for MFB attacking its own workforce and statements suggesting otherwise are wrong.”

MFB chief executive Jim Higgins. Picture: Ellen Smith

It comes as the UFU organises widespread industrial action, to begin on Tuesday, including rolling stoppages for more than two hours every day.

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The action is also set to include CFA firefighters but the CFA is trying to block the union’s latest salvo in the Fair Work Commission.

Mr Marshall also attacked the Andrews Government this week in a bid to pressure them to support his demands for new workplace agreements for CFA and MFB firefighters.

In a bulletin to members, he said: “The Andrews government has been in office for two years and disappointingly both fire agencies are allowed to continue to dishonour agreements and conduct a vilification campaign against their own employees.”

Mr Marshall told the Herald Sun he stood by his statements, saying the independent Fire Services Review found an “almost uncrossable chasm” between firefighters and management, linked to the MFB’s “aggressive” industrial tactics.

Mr Marshall said Mr Higgins was “crying wolf”.

United Firefighters Union secretary Peter Marshall. Picture: Tim Carrafa

“I think there needs to be a change of personnel (in MFB leadership) or a change of attitude, and there doesn’t seem to be a change of attitude,” he said.

Mr Higgins said in his email that “the claims being made on behalf of firefighters” by their union had impacted the public’s view of firefighters.

“This has an impact on the reputation of firefighters that is very difficult for them to reconcile,” he said.

Mr Higgins said the MFB’s senior leaders agreed it was “time to put two decades of conflict behind us and move forward in a much more collaborative and cooperative way”.

He said the brigade had been “proactive and successful in generating a very strong trail of positive stories” about firefighters.

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