(1) Adoption or Rejection of Award Clause 14 re “Special Duties” positions
That this Special General Meeting of members determines that previous Union positions with respect to the issue Special Duties shall be superceded by the following policy:
That the provisions contained in Clause 14 of the Award shall be agreed to by the Union (and therefore activated) provided that:
1. All Special Duties positions shall only be open to operational firefighters from within the NSWFB, and then only to those firefighters who have attained the rank of Qualified Firefighter, or above; and
2. The final list of Special Duties positions, their Position Descriptions and their position evaluation (ie grading) shall be finalised and agreed to by a further Special General Meeting of members prior to the introduction of Special Duties. This further Special General Meeting shall be called within 14 days of the State Committee’s finalisation of this list, and in any event within 6 weeks of the date of this Meeting; and
3. That all positions that are agreed as Special Duties positions pursuant to (2) shall receive back pay to 2 January 1997, or on and from the date on which the position was established (which ever is the latter) in accordance with sub clause 14.1 of the Award; and
4. That the Department agree that there will be no loss in substantive numbers as at 20th July 2000 of Station Officer and Senior Officer ranks due to the implementation of Clause 14; and
5. That the Department agree to light duties members having the right to progress to at least the rank of Qualified Firefighter in order that they may gain access to Special Duties positions; and
6. That the Department agree to vary sub-clause 14.10 to the extent that any time spent in a Special Duties position shall not count towards the minimum periods of service which may be required for operational rank progression/promotion under Clause 13 of the Award.
Second SGM, 27 July 2000
(2) Proposed FBEU Award for, and recruitment of, RFS employees (ie FCO’s)
That the Secretary’s report be received, and that this Special General Meeting of members endorses the State Committee’s decision to lodge and pursue an award application with the NSW Industrial Relations Commission for Fire Control Officers and Deputy Fire Control Officers of the NSW Rural Fire Service based upon the rates of pay and conditions provided for Superintendents and Inspectors within the Crown Employees (NSW Fire Brigades Firefighting Staff) Award 2000. Further, this Meeting supports and endorses the State Committee’s decision to actively pursue the recruitment to the Union of these and other firefighting employees within NSW, thereby maintaining the Union’s status as the sole trade union for the firefighting industry in this state.
(3) Progress of negotiations and future direction of the year-old D&D Dispute
That the Secretary’s report be received, and that this Special General Meeting of members condemns the Carr Government for its failure to date to restore fair and equitable death and disability benefits for all members. Accordingly, this Meeting now directs the State Committee to make preparations for a coordinated industrial campaign in support of our Union’s demands in this dispute, and once finalised, to present its recommendations for the conduct of this campaign to a further General Meeting of members.
