The Department’s new Workplace Complaints Policy was released in In Orders 2010/17 on Tuesday rescinding the previous Grievance Resolution Policy. Members will recall in last week’s SITREP that the Union was concerned that the Department was trying to place extra responsibilities on members, in particular SOs, for work that should be left to human resources.
After further negotiations, the Union is satisfied the policy does not contain any additional duties for SOs, but does formalise some of things they already do. The Union has taken a watching brief on the policy and welcomes feedback on its operation.
LSV staffing changes imminent
As reported last week, Special Roster permanent staffing for Ballina, Batemans Bay, Cessnock, Maitland and Nelson Bay remains headed for a 1 October start. The flipside to this is that so too are the agreed changes to LSV staffing, and Station Officer rostering at Cessnock.
The Department is proposing to:
relocate Chester Hill’s LSV to the Central Coast, and Crows Nest’s LSV to City of Sydney;
progressively staff the LSVs at City of Sydney, Kogarah and Parramatta with Alternative Duties firefighters; and
place Alternative Duties SOs at COS on the 10/14 Roster to coordinate LSV work i.e. take calls from stations/sections regarding jobs and allocate these to the LSV drivers.
As previously agreed, the LSVs in Newcastle, Wollongong and the Central Coast will be staffed by retained members, while retained staff from Mortdale and Rhodes will be used to staff the Kogarah and Parramatta LSVs if there is an urgent job and no Alternative Duties staff available. Negotiations are now in the final stages and as a result, these staffing changes are expected to commence shortly.
UFUA media
This week has seen national media coverage of the mass resignations of FBEU members from the failed organisation that is the UFUA.
Resignation forms for the handful of FBEU members who are yet to resign are available here.
Here are links to stories that appeared in the national papers:
Inside this issue: