darinsullivan.blogspot.com: Fire Brigade Employees' Union @FBEU response to Letter from FRNSW

Reply to A/Deputy Commissioner Mark Brown:

1. The bans the Union placed on 20 October were modest ones regarding the use of relieving staff, and have been used many times over the last decade. It was FRNSW management who chose to escalate the dispute by refusing to recall staff to make up minimum crewing, consequently closing stations. The FBEU did not close these stations - the Department did.

2. The Department directed some crews who were below the staff and effective minimum staffing level of four firefighters on an engine to respond to emergencies regardless. This was again an escalation of the dispute, in that safe and effective crew levels are considered sacrosanct in our industry. These directions were ignored by firefighters, and rightly so. To respond with less that four firefighters on an engine is unsafe, for both the crew and the community.

3. A/Deputy Commissioner Brown makes the point that during recent industrial action the Union called 35 stations into the CBD for stop work meetings. This is correct. What he failed to mention was that all of those crews were available to respond in the event of a major incident in the Sydney area. The Department’s decision to close stations on 20 October was very different, in that these stations did not have the necessary staff to respond in any event.

4. By escalating the dispute FRNSW closed over 20 fire stations. They also attempted to direct crews to respond without safe and effective minimum crewing. Both of these actions impacted upon community and firefighter safety.

5. The Union notes that the entire dispute was settled by the Department simply agreeing to honour the commitments made in February 2010. All this could have been avoided if from the outset FRNSW had met with the Union, and respected the agreement that existed between the parties. It is deeply unfortunate that it took industrial action from firefighters to achieve this.

Jim Casey

State Secretary

FIRE BRIGADE EMPLOYEES’ UNION

Click here to see the Fire & Rescue NSW letter to Leader the editor

Click here to return to story