A WIMMERA Country Fire Authority volunteer believes a public and political stoush that has erupted over a new enterprise bargaining agreement for firefighters is unfair.
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The United Firefighters Union wants the authority board to sign a new agreement. However the board this week rejected the agreement because it believes certain clauses are unlawful and give the union veto power over resources and staff.
The Fair Work Commission last week issued non-binding recommendations to the state government in favour of the deal.
Its recommendations stated changes to the agreement would not affect volunteers.
Hopetoun’s Shane Roberts is a firefighter with district 18 and said he had read Fair Work Commissioner Julius Rowe’s report.
“I can't see anything in the final recommendation that's going to affect me as a volunteer firefighter in district 18, and I can't see it's going to affect district 17 volunteers either,” he said.
“I think it's a bit of a difficult situation. The enterprise bargaining agreement is between the parties involved, and all of a sudden it's become public. That's a bit unfair.”
Mr Roberts said he had received authority pagers asking him to rally against the agreement in Melbourne.
“But what are we protesting about?” he said. “There's nothing I can see from Fair Work that is really bad.
“I don't know what's been bargained and I'm not privy to negotiations, but I do think it's unfair that I've been asked to protest without being giving reasons.
“We are represented by Volunteer Fire Brigades Victoria, and I don't think anything is going to change with the way we're represented.
“The career firefighters are represented by the union, and the union wants negotiation with CFA – I think that's fair and reasonable.”
