Sitrep 61/2022 – Awards gazetted, Metro Cross-Tunnel update, Presumptive cancer legislation
December 2, 2022
Awards gazetted by IRC
Today, the Permanent, Retained and D&D Awards were gazetted by the NSW Industrial Relations Commission. They are now legally binding.
You can access each Award below, and the copies on the FBEU website have been updated. We encourage you to print a copy of the relevant Awards out to have at your station.
Update: Sydney Metro Project Cross-Passage Tunnels Following the previous update, the FBEU have this week met with FRNSW to discuss the huge engineering shortfalls posed to impact safe work practices for FBEU members in the Sydney Metro rail project.
The Union are awaiting freedom of information requests concerning Sydney Metro Risk Assessments and other technical guideline documents used to justify a deviation from Australian Standards concerning cross-passage tunnel spacing, and other compromises to safe work practices for firefighters involved in incidents within the planned rail tunnels.
We understand that FRNSW and Sydney Metro were to have held another formal meeting prior to December of which both FRNSW and Minister Steph Cooke have committed to briefing the FBEU.
We will endeavour to update members shortly.
Presumptive Cancer Laws
As reported in our recent AGM’s, the FBEU have been in discussion with Minister Cooke and the shadow NSW Labor Government about the need for expansion of the cancers covered by presumptive legislation for firefighters in our state and based upon the growing body of research highlighting the risks of firefighting including the recent declaration from the World Health Organisation IARC in July this year.
This week, changes to the federal legislation covering Aviation firefighters has increased the types of cancers covered from 12 to 20 adding Thyroid, Pancreatic, Skin, Cervical, Ovarian, Penile, Lung cancer, and Malignant Mesothelioma.
With the NSW state election in March 2023, the FBEU will be doubling-down on efforts to ensure that firefighter safety is at the forefront of State Government priorities, and will be seeking amendments to NSW presumptive legislation once Parliament returns for 2023.
