News
SitRep 2/2025
January 24, 2025
Public Holidays
Members are advised that the Award clauses relating to consolidated leave for Permanents and overtime for Retained require that the public holiday either be Easter Sunday or an “additional public holiday”, in order to access those entitlements. The public holiday standard in the Act provides that when New Year’s Day, Christmas Day or Boxing Day falls on a Saturday or Sunday there is to be an additional public holiday on the following Monday or Tuesday. There are no additional public holidays for Australia Day or any other public holiday (outside those listed above) that falls on a weekend – for those days, the public holiday is moved from the day it falls to the Monday, whereas with New Year’s Day, Christmas Day and Boxing Day, those days are public holidays plus an extra day, known as the additional public holiday.
There are no additional public holidays in 2024 or 2025.
As Australia Day does not attract an additional public holiday, Permanent Firefighters will not be credited Consolidated Leave for working on 27 January, and Retained will not be paid at Overtime rates for working on that day.
You can see all upcoming public holidays, including additional days, here.
Rescue Issues
A reminder to members that, per SitRep 37/2024, we are still seeking information on rescue incidents or rescue arrangements where members believe it is noteworthy or worth following up on. We have a growing list of incidents demonstrating the dire, inconsistent, and frustrating state of rescue responses across the state, caused by every service.
The more information we get, the better. Keep sending us examples.
MDT Remediation
Members may recall that last year, following the alarm being raised by a HSR, the FBEU forced the Department to remove MDTs from a number of appliances, mainly bushfire tankers, because the MDTs and their cradles were situated directly in front of the passenger airbags.
We are pleased to report that remediation of these MDTs started just before Christmas, and it is anticipated that every MDT will be replaced by 20 February 2025.
If there are any issues with this rollout, please get in touch with Fleet in the first instance, and then contact us if your issue remains unresolved.
This outcome demonstrates the work of the FBEU in dealing with safety issues and shows the benefits of HSRs and the FBEU working together to prosecute safety issues where the Department is failing to deal with them.
Arbitration
Reminder that starting Tuesday, 11 February, the Industrial Court of NSW will hear testimony from 39 witnesses across the FBEU membership as part of our case for fair and equitable improvements to firefighter pay and conditions, as outlined in the 2024 Log of Claims.
The FBEU are calling on all available members to attend the Court in support of our claim. Seats are limited and members are encouraged to RSVP for specific dates here.
In Unity,
Leighton Drury
State Secretary
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- SitRep 3/2025 February 7, 2025
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