Inside this issue:

• Staffing and checking of appliances at jointly-staffed stations
• Retained availability “not an issue”
• Refreshment and meals
• Union calendars
• Christmas/New Year shutdown

Read more…

The Department has approached the Union about problems in getting sufficient numbers of members making themselves available for recall on Christmas Day. The most pressing problem appears to be covering expected shortages of Station Officers on that day. Read more…

In August 2001 the Union issued a notice instructing Permanent members to  check/maintain/wash only their station’s pumper or aerial pumper (as the case may be), and for the rostered driver for that shift to claim and be paid the (then) motor drive allowance. Similarly, Retained members were to check/maintain/wash any and all other appliances at the station, and to claim and be paid for all time spent doing so as per Standing Orders and clause 6.7.1 of the Retained Award. Read more…

The Union launched a new web page at the recent Sydney AGM and, quite rightly, we’re pretty proud of its look, functionality and content. Read more…

I think we all understand what sells newspapers and its not necessarily ‘the whole truth and nothing but the truth’. A ‘shock-horror’ headline always draws us to a story and maybe just maybe there could be some factual information within. Read more…

2005 AGM results

The Union’s 95th Annual General Meeting concluded at the Tom Mann Threatre, Surry Hills last Wednesday 30 November. The collective results from this and the various Sub-Branch held in Western Sydney, Newcastle, the Central Coast, Illawarra, and at various stations throughout the state are as follows: Read more…

That’s the Industrial Relations Commission’s blunt assessment of Commissioner Mullins’s decision to sack Senior Firefighter Joe Natoli back on 20 July this year. And before Mr Mullins complains yet again about the Union “playing the man, not the ball”, the inescapable truth is that when it comes to disciplinary action (and dismissal in particular) the buck stops with one man and one man only: the NSWFB Commissioner. Read more…