Dan Andrews deal with the fire fighters union in Victoria.
Labor and the unions at their finest.
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Australian Associated Press
Tue 6 Mar 2018 13.40 AEDT Last modified on Tue 6 Mar 2018 16.07 AEDT
James Merlino, Victoria’s state emergency services minister, said the firefighter deal wasn’t ‘a massive increase in leave entitlements’. Photograph: Joe Castro/AAP
Victorian taxpayers will spend $150m on a new pay deal for Melbourne firefighters that includes almost 200 days of personal and other leave a year.
Metropolitan Fire Brigade (MFB) firefighters will vote on the long-awaited enterprise bargaining agreement on Friday.
James Merlino, the state emergency services minister, said on Tuesday the agreement cost was “in the order of $150m and that’s fully accounted for in the budget”.
“If you’re in a burning home and you’ve got a firefighter bashing through the door to save you and your children, do you think you care what they’re paid or what allowances they receive?”
Firefighters who have been on the job for more than two years will be eligible for 99 days of personal and sick leave a year, on top of 65 days’ annual leave. They will be able to take four days off if a family member, including a niece or a nephew, fell ill or was injured.
The agreement also included provisions for 10 days of community service leave and five days of union training, which alongside the state’s 13 public holidays added up to 196 days.
Merlino said this wasn’t “a massive increase in leave entitlements”. “There are various clauses in regards to leave but to think that every firefighter would add every single one of those leave provisions in one year is just completely unrealistic,” the minister said.
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Kristen Hilton, the Victorian equal opportunity and human rights commissioner, reportedly raised concerns with Merlino and the MFB board over the deal just days before the latter endorsed it.
The commissioner has been investigating the Country Fire Authority (CFA) and the MFB. Its report has been delayed by a legal bid by the United Firefighters Union to block its release.
However, details of the report were leaked to the Age which on Tuesday reported on claims of entrenched bullying, “everyday sexism” and a “hyper-masculine culture” in the MFB.
Merlino said: “We can’t move on and tackle culture and diversity until we have reached an agreement, so I am very glad an agreement’s been reached.”
Opposition leader Matthew Guy called the deal a “stinking, rorting mess”. He repeated his pledge for a royal commission into the fire services if the Coalition won the election in November.
