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1 December 2015

Welcome to this edition of Signal 7. As you know a lot has happened since the last Signal 7. Changes in personnel in the union office, strategic reform agenda, review of the Communications centre, the announcement of Mark Jones’ employment, planning for the fire season, and a few disputes. Please read on and catch up with all the developments. We hope to not leave it so long between drinks so to speak before the next signal seven.

BCOM and Union Office With the departure of Paul Swain, there was a need for BCOM to identify a replacement. It was obviously very disappointing that we had to do this so soon after the start of the electoral term. Of course we wish Paul all the best in his new role in the Northern Territory. As was announced by email and on the Union’s Facebook page, Greg McConville has been appointed Industrial Officer and Acting Secretary. Many of you will have already met Greg, and those of you who haven’t will have opportunities in the near future. Mate Peric continues to act as Branch President, and the other members currently on the BCOM are Robbie Thompson, Steve Geerdink, Damian Holloway and Graeme Gallagher. A meeting of the BCOM scheduled for early December will address the filling of vacancies on a permanent basis. In other news, we have been informed by Unions ACT that they are giving up the lease on our current premises. Unions ACT will be moving to a more central location. We are yet to decide on what we will be doing, and we may operate for a short period of time without a physical office. We are looking at the range of options and hope to have this issue resolved quickly.

Station Officer Promotions, Commander Promotions, Career Development, Acting up and ACTF&RS Establishment. That is a mouthful! All of these issues are related. The BCOM at its meeting on 27 October discussed all of these issues and resolved to take a strategic approach. Following that meeting we have approached ACT Fire and Rescue and ESA to address as a matter of urgency the issue of establishment of ACT Fire and Rescue. The issue of establishment is addressed in clause 148 of our Enterprise Agreement (EA). That clause sets out the minimum number of staff on each operational shift and in each platoon. The clause also provides for the district relief roster. Importantly the clause provides that:

SIGNAL SEVEN

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“within three months at the commencement of the agreement the ACTF&R will, in consultation with UFU commence the process of identifying, describing, establishing and detailing all positions that consists the ACTF&R. The establishment will be based on those positions agreed between the head of service and the UFU.”

Obviously, this did not occur at the time it was supposed to. BCOM has decided that this should be done as a matter of priority, and correspondence has been exchanged with ESA and ACTF&R. We have made it clear that we expect that this issue will be resolved before there is any further action on the strategic reform agenda. (See separate article). BCOM considers that resolving this issue is important insofar as it will identify the total number of positions in ACTF&R. This should provide a better basis to identify where appointments should be made to positions in which UFU members are currently acting, for example Station Officer and Commander. It may be the case that this issue take some time to resolve, and members may be asked for theIR support in providing input to this process in coming weeks. Nonetheless we consider it to be very important to resolving current issues of staffing within ACTF&R. ESA Strategic Reform Agenda There are many clichés and song lyrics which could be attached to this:

“The gift that keeps giving”?, “Old man river just keeps rolling along”? “It’s the end of the world as we know it”? “Don’t know what I want but I know how to get it”? “Will you still love me tomorrow?” “Dirty deeds – done dirt cheap”?

We couldn’t possibly comment on whether any of these are suitable: We’ll leave that up to you. What we do know is that this agenda is creating significant uncertainty. We all know that in the absence of concrete information the rumour mill flourishes. A briefing of unions took place on 24 November which set out some elements of the next stage of the SRA. This included a possible regrouping of functions under various executive managers: Risk and Planning, Logistics and Governance, People and Culture, Strategic Reform Agenda. The proposal would see functions move from under the current service chiefs (ACTAS, ACTF&R, ACT RFS, ACTSES) into these areas: for example all ACTF&R and ACTAS training would be grouped under “People and Culture”. What is not proposed is any movement of functions into or between the areas of responsibility of the current service chiefs. There seems to be an inherent assumption in this that civilian managers are better equipped to manage than professional firefighters. We are told that this will not lead to any reduction in operational response. What we have not been told is what the impact might be on senior ranks such as Superintendent, Commander, etc. in the medium term. In the short term, we are told that current superintendent functions will move across with them. What happens after that is unknown.

At the 24 November meeting, ESA were unable to tell us what would be said to staff, when it would be said, and how it would be communicated. UFU have made it clear that we have been provided

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with insufficient information for any notification to staff to take place. Instead, ESA have agreed to come back to us and spell out “what the next steps might look like”. We have also made it clear that we expect that the negotiations on establishment need to be concluded before any further implementation of the SRA takes place. Other unions have taken a similar approach. Until further information is provided, UFU members are left to consider the likely approach of Mark Jones who has been appointed for a two year period to manage the SRA. Mr Jones’ appointment was widely reported and commented upon, and many will remember that certain documents were provided to cabinet in the ACT Government which were written by Mr Jones. The Fire Brigades’ Union in the UK has made known their concerns about Mr Jones, as has the National Executive of the UFU at its November meeting. We will continue to scrutinise this whole process closely. Women in Emergency Services Strategy On 29 October, BCOM discussed this strategy and resolved as follows:

”That the UFU support the merit-based recruitment of women to firefighter ranks and supports the recruitment initiatives as outlined to the meeting. The UFU requests that ESA provide further information about the WIES and related programs particularly aimed at identifying ways that the UFU and its members can provide support to these initiatives.”

Since then, a number of recruitment information sessions have taken place, and the UFU has been closely monitoring these to ensure that a consistent approach is applied. At the same time funding was provided in the ACT budget for project work aimed at identifying and designing modifications that are necessary at fire stations to ensure firefighter dignity and privacy. All firefighters will benefit from these improved arrangements. Draft plans have been prepared in respect of Fyshwick fire station, and will be subject to consultation before they are approved. We will report further on this as the initiative proceeds.

Personal Protective Clothing Clause 153 of our EA provides that “The Head of Service will provide an initial issue of standard issue clothing in accordance with an agreement jointly developed between The Head of Service and the Union.” Last week we wrote to ACT Fire and Rescue starting that we wish to negotiate that agreement. We have asked ACT Fire and Rescue to identify what they think should be on the list of standard issue clothing, and we’re working to produce our own version. We have also identified that some clothing currently issued is outdated or in need of repair. We will pursue these issues through the uniform committee. If you have any feedback or suggestions please contact either Graeme Gallagher of John Helgeson.

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ComCen Review UFU representatives have now attended three meetings of the ComCen Review committee. Greg McConville, Russ Goodall, Paul Greck and Peter Telford have all attended meetings and provided feedback to ComCen firefighters. The progress has been somewhat strange. At the first meeting on 20 October 2015, ESA stated that the report of LES consultants into ComCen had been available to unions through the expenditure review process for some time. The UFU made it clear that providing a document in an expenditure review process, in which rules of Cabinet confidentiality apply, is an entirely different thing to consulting us under the EA. Under the EA the employer is required to consult us where there are proposals to introduce changes. For this reason the UFU requested that ESA tell us which recommendations of the LES consultants report they were attracted to, and which recommendations held no attraction. We understood this position to be agreed. In the days prior to our next meeting on 10 November, all that had been circulated by ESA was a table which set out all the recommendations of the LES consultants report in one column, and another column which was blank. Worryingly the table included the logo of the UFU alongside the logos of the ACT Government and the ESA. UFU wrote to ESA stating that the table was not what we had expected, and requested that it be removed from circulation because the UFU logo had been used without any authorisation. We pointed out that to use our logo in such away could imply a degree of support for the recommendations when clearly that was not the case. At the meeting on the 10th we requested that ESA complete the work that it had undertaken to do, and in response ESA Commissioner Dominic Lane said that it would be an “iterative process”. At the same meeting we also pointed out that a number of recommendations of the report could’ve been much better written and were not necessarily statements of fact. We pointed out that the report could potentially provide the wrong inferences in a range of areas. We also corrected some of the wrong conclusions in the report. In addition we provided much detail about how the report had failed to apprehend the way that ComCen works, and in particular the role played by professional firefighters in ComCen in acting as the incident controller before any appliances arrive. At the next meeting on 24 November we were provided with the same table that had been provided to us previously minus the UFU logo and with ESA comments included in the second column. There are 33 recommendations in the LES consultants report. In relation to 28 of those 33 recommendations the ESA comments started with the word “noted”. We asked what this meant in the particular context, and we were told that it meant that the ESA did not support the recommendation, nor did it oppose the recommendation. So we can conclude that after having the consultants report in their hands for many months, and despite that report having been provided to Cabinet, ESA have still not decided their position in relation to 28 of the 33 recommendations. Despite this, the report has been provided to other parties including RFS volunteers who are being asked to comment on it. This is an unacceptable position for the UFU insofar as a poor quality consultants report is forming the basis of seeking comments from the broader community, despite ESA trying to appear to be agnostic about what the report proposes. We are now told that early in the New Year ESA will “identify more clearly what the future should look like”. UFU will be providing a final response on this report in coming days.

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Fairbairn Parking ESA announced a new parking policy which would require members based at Fairbairn to pay for their parking effective from 1 December 2015. This has now been pushed out to an unspecified date. So that we could properly consult about the issues, the UFU requested some detailed information from ESA on October 30. The information we requested was directed to the number of parks provided at Fairburn since ESA moved there, and since ComCen was located there. We also asked for information about the allocation and usage of bays in the secure parking compound. We are yet to receive a reply to this request. Fire Engineering allowance The UFU recently obtained payment of this allowance for two members backdated to 27 July this year. We are pursuing some other payment issues at present. People’s Climate March 29 November

The UFU provided a contingent at this event, and Acting Secretary Greg McConville spoke about the implications of climate change for firefighters (see our Facebook page for details). We were well received by the crowd of over 6,000. We’d like to thank Act Fire and Rescue who organised for No. 1 pumper to be in attendance with crew. This provided a very good focal point in particular for families to approach us about what we do and the implications of climate change. We generated good media coverage and our message spread well. Special thanks go to UFU members Graeme Gallagher, Steve Geerdink, Damien Holloway, Stuart Gallop, and Todd Bourne for their efforts on the day

Authorised by Greg McConville, Acting Secretary, UFU, A.C.T. Branch. This is an official Union document to be shared between members only.