This morning’s Special General Meeting of members held over the last six days has overwhelmingly endorsed all three motions put forward for the consideration of the Unions rank and file membership. The results of those votes are as follows:
tags | SGM
April 28, 2008 by admin
April 22, 2008 by gemma
It is now crystal clear that the Union notice of 22 January 2008 titled “About medical certificates and medical records” ruffled the Department’s feathers. That’s because the Department took the Union to the Industrial Relations Commission on 18 April 2008 about it. In turn, the Industrial Relations Commission has recommended that the Union publish a new notice that states ‘that medical certificates supplied to the Department must state the nature of the illness or incapacity as well as the period for which the employee is unfit for duty.’ So this notice does just that.
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April 15, 2008 by admin
On Thursday April 10th the Department provided the Union with a document in response to our claim for wage parity with Australian Capital Territory firefighters. That document was amongst the most confrontational and inflammatory grabs at our wages and conditions since the Board of Fire Commissioners. The document was at the same time served on the NSW Industrial Relations Commission as a counter claim on our wages and conditions, served up for final arbitration by the courts.
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April 10, 2008 by admin
The Department took penny-inching to a new low in the IRC this morning when it argued for more than 90 minutes for the Retained Award’s “C” grade monthly retainer to be cut by 10 cents. Ten lousy cents!
The Union’s application for the new interim award increased the C retainer from $105.80 to $108.50 per month. But the Department’s team (two lawyers, an Assistant Commissioner and a Chief Superintendent) turned up this morning to argue tooth and nail that it should instead be $108.40.
Reason prevailed only when the judge ruled in our favour and ordered a new rate of $108.50.
For anyone wondering why we have not been able to reach agreement over new permanent and retained awards, this sort of pedantry goes a long way to explaining the problem.
Simon Flynn
State Secretary
April 10, 2008 by admin
For all of the accusations and counter-accusations made about this issue over the past week, the Union’s concerns about the system required in order to have traffic infringement notices lifted were shown to be well founded.
Click here for the correspondence between the Union and Department
April 10, 2008 by admin
The Department and Union have agreed to the introduction of an electronic Pre-Incident Plan reporting system. The Union understands that the necessary changes to the data collection requirements have now been completed and as such, the bans imposed on electronic Pre-Incident Plans on 21 December 2007 are lifted upon receipt of this notice.
Members are reminded that bans imposed by way of Union notice remain current until lifted by way of a further notice signed by the State Secretary.
Simon Flynn
State Secretary
State Secretary
April 9, 2008 by admin
Most members are now aware that the relationship between Union and the Department has recently darkened. Not since the Department attempted to cut the relieving corps, destroy the promotional system, increase out-duties and remove the rank of Senior Firefighter have relations been so strained. Read more…
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April 7, 2008 by admin
Members would be aware of the memo from Metro South 3 Zone Office dated 20 March 2008 regarding a proposed trial of single pump responses to identified AFA installations within the Liverpool Local Government Area. Read more…
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April 4, 2008 by admin
As members are probably aware, the media has today widely reported on the farcical situation regarding traffic infringements that the Union first brought to members’ attention in our notice of 20 March.
Despite receiving a copy of our notice at the time, the Department did nothing to address the problem over the intervening fortnight. And today, rather than putting its hands up, accepting that it got it wrong and agreeing to fix the problem, the Department instead spent the day trying to convince anyone who’ll listen that this ridiculous situation is OUR fault!
Like the issue itself, this pathetic attempt at blame shifting from management would probably be funny if it was not so serious. It is also quite untrue.
The fact is that the two firefighters already fined had both filled out and returned the paperwork to the Department which confirmed they were responding to an emergency incident at the time of their speeding infringement. They did everything asked of them, and expected that to be the end of it. Remember, this all occurred before the Union’s notice of 20 March. The next they heard of it was when they received their $238 fines made out in their names and delivered to their home addresses.
In both instances, the State Debt Recovery Office sent the original fine to the NSWFB because they had no idea who was driving the fire appliance. We say that it is at this point that the Department should check the particulars and, upon confirming that the fire appliance was responding to an emergency, advise the Police to tear up the infringement notice. And we say that all of this should occur without our members even knowing that an infringement notice had been issued.
Instead, it was only because the firefighters filled out all of the forms and returned them to head office that they were then personally fined – hence our advice to check the circumstances and, provided you are sure that the infringement occurred while responding to an incident under lights and siren, to bin these notices if you receive one. Frankly, if the NSWFB can’t protect firefighters from speeding fines and red light cameras then management deserves to wear the ensuing fines.
Of course we could just turn up to contest the penalty notice in court. After all, we’re confident that no court is going to uphold a traffic infringement against a firefighter who was responding under lights and siren. But what a monumental waste of our time, public resources and public funds.
We cannot conclude without responding to our employer’s wailing protests that this is somehow a part of some wider union wage campaign. The unavoidable truth is that someone, somewhere within the NSW bureaucracy changed the rules about fire appliances and traffic infringements, and it wasn’t us.
When it comes to this issue, the only campaign the Union is involved in is the campaign for common sense.
Simon Flynn
State SecretaryAs members are probably aware, the media has today widely reported on the farcical situation regarding traffic infringements that the Union first brought to members’ attention in our notice of 20 March.
Despite receiving a copy of our notice at the time, the Department did nothing to address the problem over the intervening fortnight. And today, rather than putting its hands up, accepting that it got it wrong and agreeing to fix the problem, the Department instead spent the day trying to convince anyone who’ll listen that this ridiculous situation is OUR fault!
Like the issue itself, this pathetic attempt at blame shifting from management would probably be funny if it was not so serious. It is also quite untrue.
The fact is that the two firefighters already fined had both filled out and returned the paperwork to the Department which confirmed they were responding to an emergency incident at the time of their speeding infringement. They did everything asked of them, and expected that to be the end of it. Remember, this all occurred before the Union’s notice of 20 March. The next they heard of it was when they received their $238 fines made out in their names and delivered to their home addresses.
In both instances, the State Debt Recovery Office sent the original fine to the NSWFB because they had no idea who was driving the fire appliance. We say that it is at this point that the Department should check the particulars and, upon confirming that the fire appliance was responding to an emergency, advise the Police to tear up the infringement notice. And we say that all of this should occur without our members even knowing that an infringement notice had been issued.
Instead, it was only because the firefighters filled out all of the forms and returned them to head office that they were then personally fined – hence our advice to check the circumstances and, provided you are sure that the infringement occurred while responding to an incident under lights and siren, to bin these notices if you receive one. Frankly, if the NSWFB can’t protect firefighters from speeding fines and red light cameras then management deserves to wear the ensuing fines.
Of course we could just turn up to contest the penalty notice in court. After all, we’re confident that no court is going to uphold a traffic infringement against a firefighter who was responding under lights and siren. But what a monumental waste of our time, public resources and public funds.
We cannot conclude without responding to our employer’s wailing protests that this is somehow a part of some wider union wage campaign. The unavoidable truth is that someone, somewhere within the NSW bureaucracy changed the rules about fire appliances and traffic infringements, and it wasn’t us.
When it comes to this issue, the only campaign the Union is involved in is the campaign for common sense.
Simon Flynn
State Secretary
As members are probably aware, the media has today widely reported on the farcical situation regarding traffic infringements that the Union first brought to members’ attention in our notice of 20 March.
April 1, 2008 by gemma
The Retained Sub-Branch meeting held over last weekend to consider the Union’s draft Award application and authorise the State Secretary to seek an interim award concluded at 9am yesterday morning with near-unanimous support for the recommended motion (450 members in favour and only 3 against). Unfortunately, a further 22 votes supporting the motion could not be counted due to a lack of quorum of at least 7 members at each meeting.
tags | retained