Victorian firefighters dispute between union and CFA comes to a head

Fair Work will release recommendations on a long-running dispute over the firefighters union and the CFA.

Emergency Services Minister Jane Garrett meets protesting firefighters during the opening of the new MFB station at Altona earlier this year. Picture: Andrew Henshaw

A high-stakes show down between Daniel Andrews and Emergency Services Minister Jane Garrett could come to a head today with the Fair Work Commission releasing recommendations on how to resolve a long-running dispute with the firefighters union.

Ms Garrett is fighting the union claims and backing the Country Fire Authority, which says the union’s claims will hobble the CFA and cost the state up to a billion dollars.

But Mr Andrews’ department wants to sue for peace and is believed to have intervened in the case through Industrial Relations Victoria.

Fair Work Commissioner and former union leader Julius Roe is expected to send his recommendations to the warring parties later today, but the CFA fears the proposals will be in line with union demands.

Mr Andrews, who is in the US on an official visit, has previously met with ultra-militant United Fire Fighters’ union secretary Peter Marshall in a move that was interpreted as undermining Ms Garrett’s position.

Mr Marshall’s union has for years been seeking greater control over the volunteer-staffed CFA, which despite its name, is responsible for fires that occur well inside the city limits of Melbourne, along with everything outside that zone.

The changes being sought by the union would see seven professional firefighters attend every CFA-area fire no matter how small. The union is also demanding a consultative committee similar to the one that exists for the Metropolitan Fire Brigade that, in the eyes of critics, gives the union a veto over management decisions.

So far Ms Garrett has refused to direct the CFA to sign the EBA incorporating the changes sought by the union.

The changes are also being fought by the organisation representing the CFA’s 60,000 volunteers.

The issue is said to have split the Andrews Cabinet.