With the growing COVID-19 cluster on Sydney’s Northern Beaches, talks with the Department overnight and today have led to the attached restrictions for ME2.
These restrictions have been negotiated over the past few months in readiness for possible new outbreaks of COVID-19.
Non-essential training for the Sydney Metropolitan area has also been suspended and will be reviewed early next week.
We will continue to monitor the situation over the coming days and change the restrictions if required. More to follow
Office Christmas and New Year Shutdown
The FBEU Office will close on the afternoon of Wednesday 23 December 2020 and reopen on the morning of Wednesday 6 January 2021.
If members have any urgent matters, please contact your State Committee Official.
I want to take this opportunity to thank the Union’s staff for their dedication, hard work and commitment throughout the year.
Award Update
At the start of this week our Award bargaining team met with FRNSW to hear their response to our log of claims.
We’re disappointed to report that your employer has rejected most of our claims. While some points are still being discussed between the parties, it’s clear that your employer is unwilling to support or meaningfully negotiate on the majority of our claims.
FRNSW have told us there are two options for this Award round:
either we accept a 0.3% pay rise and talk about minor changes; or
if we continue with our claim of 2.5%, everything is off the table and we take it to the Commission.
The NSW Liberal Government has put us in an impossible situation by refusing to properly pay professional firefighters who kept communities safe through unprecedented bushfires and a pandemic.
At the meeting we also spoke about the D&D Award. We rejected all of the discussion points put forward by FRNSW at the previous meeting but will continue to discuss the D&D Award including the recommendations put to both parties by the D&D Board.
We are rapidly running out of time to negotiate this Award but FRNSW is dragging its feet on clarifying its position and bargaining parameters, refusing to definitively rule many things either in or out.
We have our final meeting for the year with the employer on Monday and will keep you updated.
