This notice was issued as a Red Message over ten years ago, but given recent calls to the Union office, it is clear that the Union’s policy regarding members appearing as witnesses during police questioning of juvenile offenders remains just as current today. Read more…

On the 17th February 2009 the United Firefighters Union of Australia,  ACT Fire Brigade and the community lost a valued colleague in tragic circumstances.
We should now mourn the loss of a comrade that represented his uniform and his union with honour and distinction. Read more…

2009 Station Officers’ Promotional Program

Recently the Union has received a number of complaints that the Department has been informing members who ask that the 2009 Station Officer Promotion Program has been delayed because of ongoing discussions with the Union regarding a reduction in the SOPP from 9 to 6 weeks duration. Whilst it is true that, yes, discussions on revised course content are ongoing, it is definitely not true that this is the reason the first SOPP is not starting in February. Read more…

The recent tragic death of firefighter David Balfour whilst fighting the Victorian bushfires has deeply touched firefighters across the country. David’s death is believed to be the first death on duty of a member of the ACT Fire Brigades. His passing was made all the more tragic by the fact that he was risking his own life in defending the lives and property of people from interstate due to a sense of duty to the firefighters from Victoria who helped defend Canberra during its extreme bushfires. Read more…

The catastrophic Victorian bushfire disaster was driven home to all in the most tragic way last night when senior firefighter (qualified) David Balfour from the Gilmour brigade in the ACT was killed on the fireground. Read more…

Despite the Union first winning this matter in the Industrial Relations Commission in June 2007 and then again on appeal and again on a second appeal some five and a half months ago, the Department still does not agree on the method for paying outstanding four hour recall claims. Read more…

In today’s hearing in the Industrial Relations Commission, the Union and Department reached agreement that there will be no deductions from members’ leave records for any errors that occurred prior to 1 January 2003. Members who have been advised that they had lost leave due to an error in 2002 or earlier will therefore have any leave that was deducted in the recent leave audit automatically re-credited. Of course, members should check their leave records to ensure that this does in fact occur. Read more…

It seems with every new year there is a renewed attempt to change the currently agreed arrangement for fire ground risk assessments. This latest trial from the Health and Safety Branch (H&SB) not only reintroduces the issue of recording risk assessments but also aims to shift the responsibility of station risk assessments, currently the responsibility of H&SB, onto Station Commanders. Read more…

The concept of gassing workers is not one normally associated with good industrial relations and in fact went out of fashion shortly after the First World War when thousands of troops returned from the trenches of Europe. Lungs, throats and eyes blistered and scared by mustard gas and chlorine. Thankfully we don’t have to put up with that and we don’t have to put up with getting gassed by carbon monoxide in the cabins of fire engines either  – so the Union’s State Committee of Management has banned the use of all first response petrol driven International series appliances. The Union has also banned the use of this series of appliances in the Service Exchange Vehicle (SEV) fleet. Read more…