United Firefighters Union CFA-takeover drives cost to $1 billion
An explosion of firefighting staff over the past six years and the merger of the CFA and MFB means Victorian households and businesses will be left to foot the rising cost. Here’s why.
Victoria
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Career firefighter numbers have risen by 70 per cent in just six years across the CFA’s former integrated stations.
The United Firefighters Union’s 777-page enterprise agreement shows the Andrews Government has signed off on lifting career firefighter numbers from 696 working at 34 CFA stations in 2014 to 1177 working at 38 stations by the end of last year.
Since then the Government has merged those 1177 CFA station staff with another 1997 from the MFB, plus 478 commanders, station officers and assistant chief fire officers to form Fire Rescue Victoria.
The total cost of running FRV is set to exceed $1 billion in this financial year, compared to a joint CFA-MFB wages bill of $760 million in 2018-19.
But Emergency Volunteers Awareness Campaign director Garth Head said much of the increased staffing had been driven by agreements the UFU has brokered with government on lifting career firefighter numbers, as well as:
BANNING volunteers from sharing trucks with career firefighters, increasing the need for more career firefighters.
LIFTING the minimum number of career firefighters on pumpers from three to four.
BANNING cross-crewing, whereby each appliance must have a dedicated crew on standby who cannot step in to help man another appliance – a pumper, tanker, teleboom, rescue or HAZMAT vehicle – even if trained to operate them.
Mr Head said past CFA and the current FRV enterprise agreement with the UFU set out exactly how many career firefighters had to be employed and at which stations.
“Warrnambool (station) is particularly bad, showing what happens when the government agrees to put on more and more career staff when there’s nowhere to put them,” Mr Head said.
In September 2014 Warrnambool’s integrated CFA station had 16 career firefighters servicing a population of 33,729.
Today the same station services 35,181 people, but employs 55 career firefighters.
But Emergency Services Minister Lisa Neville said the Government made “no apology for investing in the future of our fire services – both career and volunteer”.
“We made an election commitment in 2014 that we would deliver a more modern fire service to better protect all Victorians, including an additional 450 career firefighters for the CFA and former MFB – and that’s exactly what we’ve done,” she said.
Ultimately it will be Victorian businesses and households who must cover the cost of the rise in career firefighter numbers, via the fire services property levy on their rates bills.
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