STANDING TOGETHER – Parliamentary Friends of Emergency Services
SAM Acting up
Recall kilometres backpay this week #2
STANDING TOGETHER – Parliamentary Friends of Emergency Services
The formation of a Parliamentary Friends of Emergency Services is underway following a special event held at the Parliament of NSW this week. The cross-party gathering heard from Minister David Elliott and Shadow Minister Guy Zangari and was attended by representatives of major and minor parties from the spectrum of politics.
President Mick Nairn and myself attended alongside representatives and members of the Police Association of NSW, Ambulance Division of the HSU and Prison Officers Vocational Branch (PSA). At the event the Minster made a short speech and acknowledged the risks we face at work. He said that the welfare of emergency service workers is of great priority for him and he said he wanted to work collaboratively with all the emergency services unions.
A quote from my brief speech, “We are on the frontline of things. We do see some horrible things in this job. Hopefully over the coming four years we’ll be able to get protections for our emergency service workers…”
Following the event the FBEU invited Minister Elliott to meet with us so we can talk through some of the big issues facing firefighters and fire services in our community. We look forward to reporting back about the meeting and his thoughts about the things that matter to us, the FBEU. We are looking forward to working with other emergency service unions just as we do at the frontline everyday and participating in the Parliamentary Friends group as it develops.
SAM Acting up
Since the leading rank changes, there has been reports of LFs and LSOs acting up into roles that are vacant or had an absence of longer than 28 days. The Union has brought this to the attention of the Department a number of times and, to be fair, they have tried to rectify it. The latest solution to address the issue is in the upcoming SAM update, which will highlight whether a position is vacant or an absence longer than 28 days. This should ensure that the leading ranks do not act up into those positions and therefore breach the Award. The relevant award clauses are:
7.2 Where a Station Officer is temporarily absent (on leave or for any other reason), that Station Officer’s position may be filled by a Leading Firefighter performing higher duties, provided that no absent Station Officer’s position may be filled by a Leading Firefighter performing higher duties (either by election or direction) for more than 28 days of any such absence.
7.3 Where an Inspector (including an Operational Support Inspector) is temporarily absent (on leave or for any other reason), that Inspector’s position may be filled by a Leading Station Officer performing higher duties, provided that no absent Inspector’s position may be filled by a Leading Station Officer performing higher duties (either by election or direction) for more than 28 days of any such absence.
7.4 Leading Firefighters and Leading Station Officers may elect or be directed to temporarily perform higher duties in the circumstances described in subclauses 7.2 and 7.3 and subject to subclause 7.5, shall not perform higher duties otherwise.
That said, no system is perfect and any occurrence of this happening should be reported to the office.
Recall kilometres backpay this week #2
Further to SitRep 6we have met with the Department about a number of individual discrepancies that have been sent into the office. The bulk of these, we have been told, should have been rectified in this week’s pay run. It is our understanding that only taskforce km payments need to be addressed but members are encouraged to check their payslips and contact the office if there are any concerns.
