UFU boss Peter Marshall backflips on leave under new MFB deal

UNION leader Peter Marshall says firefighters would need three years to accrue up to 196 days leave through an MFB workplace deal, as he downplayed new entitlements.

UFU secretary Peter Marshall says firefighters would need three years to accrue up to 196 days leave through an MFB workplace deal. Picture: Hamish Blair

UNION leader Peter Marshall says firefighters would need three years to accrue up to 196 days leave through an MFB workplace deal, as he downplayed new entitlements.

Two days after saying he had “done the sums” and didn’t dispute figures in the Herald Sun , Mr Marshall said on Thursday most of his members only had access to up to 99 days leave in one year.

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Asked why he had initially said firefighters could take 196 days in a year, Mr Marshall said “technically if you add up those figures you are correct, over a three-year period”.

“You don’t calculate leave over three years, it’s just not done,” he said.

Details of the new MFB EBA’s pay and perks were revealed on Tuesday, as well as the powers it hands the union to veto MFB policies on bullying, harassment and the use of CCTV cameras.

Mr Marshall said that one leave component known as “pressing necessity” leave was only available at the employer’s discretion.

However one senior fire services source said that the new EBA says a pressing necessity of four shifts “shall be granted to any employee on each occasion on account of the injury or illness of his or her immediate family or household”.

The 2010 agreement allowed for four days off but not “on each occasion”, or for injuries.

UFU members will today vote on whether to support the new EBA, which was given the green light by the MFB board in January.

Criticism over the process has plagued the Andrews Government, with Emergency Services Minister James Merlino defending the deal again yesterday.

He told parliament that “there is nothing in the EBA that impacts the power of the Chief Fire Officer.”

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