News

SitRep 35/2025

October 24, 2025

AWARD ARBITRATION DECISION – UPDATE

We returned to the IRC this week for further conciliation regarding the Awards.

As you would all recall, the Award decision left various matters for us and the Department to draft between us based on the guidance in their decision, and we have been working through that drafting with the assistance of Commissioner McDonald. We are now down to just a handful of issues.

We are back before Commissioner McDonald on Monday to have a final conciliation on these matters. If they remain unresolved, she has indicated that she will likely refer us back to the full bench at that time for a final determination as per the decision.

We will continue to work towards finalising these Awards in line with the IRC’s timetable of 30 November 2025.

Once they are finalised, we will all need to collectively turn our minds to the next steps including the remuneration taskforce and negotiations for our next Awards which are due to commence in February 2027. More to come on this at the AGMs.

 

MEDIA ROOM – UPDATE

As outlined in the 8 September Code Red, the FBEU took the Department to the Industrial Court seeking penalties for an alleged breach of the Awards, where they ignored the Status Quo requirement and proceeded with works despite the Award clauses.

Since then, we have had a compulsory conciliation, where the Department made several concessions in an effort to settle the dispute.

Some of our members received an email from the Commissioner this week, reminding them of their consultation and status quo obligations, but we thought all of our members should be aware of the fact that the Commissioner needs to remind his senior leaders, who are earning hundreds of thousands of dollars per year, of their obligations to follow Award provisions that have been in place for over two years now.

You can find a copy of his email here.

The Code Red remains in place, with the Department indicating that they will be consulting with the FBEU and members on the future of the window between the media room and the Comms floor.

 

TOTAL FIRE BANS – REMINDER

A reminder that 2008/22 requires commands to keep all pumpers online from midnight to midnight on a Total Fire Ban day. No pumpers can be taken offline on a TOBAN day. Any member who notices this occurring is urged to contact the FBEU in advance so that we can work with the command to fix the error, and to build evidence around failures to follow policy by commands.

GOPRO FOOTAGE AT INCIDENTS

This week members may have seen an email from the Deputy Commissioner of Field Operations, blaming the Union for a pause on filming anything at incidents, which followed us raising safety concerns around the use of non-intrinsically safe video recording devices such as GoPros inside structure fires.

The Media team have been encouraging the use of this technology and increasingly embracing it for years now, with no policy on its use, no clear pathway for review of footage prior to publication, no risk assessment, and no consultation with the FBEU or its members. We are aware that senior Media management were warned about the risks involved in not developing a policy on this kind of usage years ago, and they chose not to pursue the matter.

We have yet to hear back from the Department, but we hope they plan on consulting soon, as we recognise the impact that a blanket ban on all filming will have on community engagement.

 

CASINO REGIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS

I’m spending the weekend at Casino for the Regional Firefighter Championship. The FBEU has a stand, where we’re selling FBEU merchandise, and welcome any members who wish to talk to us about any industrial or organising matters.

You can view the Program here.

In Unity,

Leighton Drury
State Secretary

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