Fire call: UFU demands $117m in “savings” from CFA merger to form FRV

United Firefighters Union members are demanding more than half the $203m worth of “efficiency savings” from the CFA merger that created Fire Rescue Victoria.

More than 1500 United Firefighters Union members took to the streets last week in their battle for higher wages, plus $117 million in efficiency savings.

Members of the powerful United Firefighters Union want more than half the $203 million in “efficiency savings” resulting from the July 2020 merger of 38 CFA stations with the MFB to form Fire Rescue Victoria.

The UFU’s $117m claim is based on FRV’s analysis, which states it has made $203,768,949 in savings from 19 efficiency measures as a result of the merger, including:

$12m from 200 former CFA career firefighters now wearing the FRV uniform, while working at the CFA.

$12m from moving to a single “FRV enterprise agreement and commitment to positive industrial relations”.

$30.9m from adopting “one FRV station design”, which no longer requires room for volunteers at co-located stations.

$67.7m from what it calls “attendance at training”.

FRV’s claim of major savings comes despite FRV and CFA annual reports showing the cost of running Victoria’s fire services has risen from $1.27 billion in 2019-20 to $1.495 billion in 2021-22. FRV’s overtime bill alone blew out from $71.8m in 2020-21 to $96m in 2021-22.

CFA volunteers fear the soaring cost of funding career firefighters will leave little in the debt-ridden Victorian government’s funding pool for desperately needed truck replacements, station upgrades, training and recruitment.

Merino group officer Wayne Munro said it was frustrating that the UFU was demanding such a huge sum, while volunteers were driving Australia’s oldest fleet of tankers.

“The more the UFU demands the less the CFA gets,” Mr Munro said.

Productivity Commission analysis shows Victoria spent a $1 billion more than NSW on fire services in 2021-22, attended 29 per cent less fires and employed 17 per cent more paid firefighters, while reporting more fire-related deaths and hospitalisation per million people compared to NSW.

The Productivity Commission also found it costs each Victorian $382 to fund the state’s fire services, compared to $175 in NSW.

As for performance, Victoria’s Fire Services Implementation Monitor Niall Blair’s latest report shows FRV firefighters’ response times have slumped from 88 per cent of call outs to structure fires meeting the 7.7 minute benchmark in 2021-22 to 83 per cent meeting that target in 2022-23.

The Victorian government had already offered to boost the UFU’s 3742 firefighters’ wages by three per cent annually over four years, plus a one-off payment of $7,359.

But UFU state secretary Peter Marshall has dismissed the offer, demanding wage increases that are more in line with the consumer price index and $117m of the efficiency savings to be paid out to his 3742 members, which equates to $31,266 per firefighter.

UFU state secretary Peter Marshall has rejected the government’s offer.

After initially resisting the UFU’s demands for a share of the $203m in efficiency savings, Emergency Services Minister Jaclyn Symes authorised FRV in August to offer UFU members four $2021 efficiency payments – equal to $8084 per firefighter.

An agreement is yet to be reached.