It would appear that many members remain uncertain as to exactly what new roles and responsibilities arising from the 1997 Award have been agreed to by our Union, and therefore, exactly what work should and should not be performed by members. The following clarification is provided for guidance.
FIRE EDUCATION ACTIVITIES
As part of the productivity enhancements for the 18% wage increase in the 1997 Award, members can now undertake a number of additional activities. One of those activities relates to participation in the delivery of local community and school-based prevention and education programs. As all outstanding matters have now been settled with the Department, FireEd can now be regarded as a legitimate function of Station Staff, subject to the following guidelines.
There is to be no quota system (maximum or minimum) on the number of fire education activities performed by Stations/platoons; and
Fire education activities are to be managed by members at a Station level, in consultation with the Regional Fire Prevention Officers; and
The recording of fire education activities undertaken by Stations is acceptable, provided these records are not used by management to monitor the performance of Stations and/or platoons. If they are, they will be banned.
SCIDS/PRE INCIDENT PLANNING
The Union remains in dispute with the Dept. over the extent and form of new pre-incident inspection duties agreed to under the last Award. Also of concern is the lack of co-ordination between the Stored Chemicals Information Data System (SCIDS) and Pre-Incident Planning inspections, which is leading to a duplication of information. As a result, members are instructed not to perform any SCIDS or Pre-Incident Planning inspections or data collection/recording until these issues can be satisfactorily resolved. Members may, however, continue to participate in SCIDS training (only) where that training is already under way.
Accordingly, members are instructed to not participate in SCIDS or Pre-Incident Planning inspections, data collection and/or recording. This instruction shall remain in place until further notice.
