We have been in regular discussions with the Department for months now trying to ensure that the Awards are implemented as soon as possible. As we expected, today the Commissioner announced that the Retained 1.5 hr payment will be backdated to 26 February 2024. Other payments will be backdated to this date, and the Department has committed to providing the FBEU with an implementation plan due to apparent IT delays to date, which we will share once it is received.
HAZARDOUS MATERIALS INCIDENT RESPONSES
Members will be aware that the Fire and Rescue NSW Act designates FRNSW as the primary response agency for all Hazmat incidents across the entire state. No other agency has legislative authority to respond to and deal with Hazmat incidents. The Hazardous Material Policy reinforces this with a list of incident types requiring a response, and requiring Operational Communications to respond FRNSW appliances to those incident types. They are also required to triage every other incident type for whether there is a Hazmat component to it, and if so, respond a FRNSW appliance.
The FBEU identified over 50 incidents in RFS district in just a two-week period where the Department did not respond a FRNSW appliance, so we wrote to the Department, and they wrote back today agreeing that they will respond a FRNSW appliance to every Hazmat incident in the state as required under the Act and the Policy.
For members at stations, this will likely mean more incident calls, including into Rural Fire District. It is important to note that as FRNSW is the combat agency for all Hazmat incidents, even if an incident is in RFS district, the FRNSW OIC becomes the IC and is responsible for managing the incident to a safe completion – no matter how minor the incident.
For our members in Communications Centres, this may lead to additional incidents to manage, move-ups, and confused calls from crews. Your chain of command should support you in managing this workload.
The incidents requiring an automatic FRNSW response are:
Acetylene incident
Aircraft crash
Aircraft fire
Aircraft incident
Airport incident or alert
Asbestos incident
Car leaking fuel
Gas cylinder fire
Gas fire
Gas leak
Hazmat incident
MVA fluid on roadway
Oil refinery fire
Radiological incident
Silo incident
Spillage
Suspicious substance
All other incident types will be triaged appropriately.
If any member feels that a response has been incorrectly generated or additional workload is not being supported, reach out through the chain of command in the first instance, and if your concerns are still not addressed, contact the FBEU via our industrial enquiry form here.
