News

SitRep 31/2025

September 19, 2025

PRESUMPTIVE CANCER BILL PASSED BY THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL

Yesterday in the Legislative Council (Upper House), the Opposition and Crossbench suspended standing orders to bring on a vote of the presumptive cancer legislation that was debated last week.

It passed the Upper House and now heads to the Legislative Assembly (Lower House) for consideration.

The next sitting weeks are in the middle of October, and we will keep members informed on any progress.

 

ALWAYS MORE TO DO…

As members would be aware, it has been a busy time in the FBEU office and for your elected officials, with the Award taking up a chunk of our resources and time.

Aside from the Award, however, we are business as usual. At the upcoming AGMs, more information will be provided about the work of the FBEU office, but I wanted to share with you some of that information, from 31 August 2024 to 31 August 2025.

In that time period, we worked through 1,734 inquiries to our office – our team have closed off 91% of those inquiries, with the remaining balance mainly being disciplinary, workers comp, and medical matters. Out of the total, Metro East Command had the most with 17% of those, and RW had the least with 6%. Our Non-Station Based members accounted for 9%.

15% were related to Workers Comp, 5% were disciplinary, 5% were related to promotional programs, and 1% were related to COVID (yes, all these years later).

On top of that, between those dates, there have been over 200 Joint Consultative Committee, Subcommittee, or Working Group meetings your SCOM officials have attended, and our office staff have attended. That is without considering all the other meetings held for other matters that don’t fall under the JCC umbrella, of which there have been hundreds more.

Our team has also been busy in the IRC, with several active cases, here are but a few examples:

1. The Media Room prosecution where the FBEU is seeking $30,000 worth of penalties against the Department for failing to adhere to the Award-mandated Status Quo provisions.
2. The use of Bravo Pumpers in MW3 to cover Retained shortages with staff being paid at single time rates instead of relief duties.
3. The direction for employees on alternative duties to be placed on a modified, back-to-back roster or work at a workplace other than their usual workplace without their consent – which the IRC has directed the Department to cease until 23 September 2025 or until further order of the IRC (so if you are aware of this occurring between now and then, get in touch with the FBEU office immediately).
4. Rescue allowance backpay to PROP completion.
5. Off-shift training overtime payment dispute for off-shift training performed under the old Award.
6. Fighting the forced medical discharge of an employee who has had two specialists clear them for full duties.

This is just a snapshot of what your union does, I want to thank our officials and our office team for their work, and for the members who stick their hand up to help as well.

 

CHANGE OF START TIME SURVEY – UPDATE

As mentioned in last week’s SitRep, we will be conducting an SMS Survey to determine the level of support for a change to the operational roster start times.

The survey is non-binding, but the result will help guide your Union on progressing this idea further. There will be opportunities for questions and ideas beyond the survey, if we are to navigate this concept and any issues that arise.

The survey will open from Friday 26 September until 1700hrs Monday 29 September.

Results will be analysed zone by zone, which will allow your officials to understand any pockets of strong support or opposition.

In the meantime, we encourage all members to use the online form at https://fbeu.net/ to update their contact details and be part of the democratic process.

 

In Unity,

Leighton Drury
State Secretary

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