the average absentee rate is 2-4% FIFTEEN per cent of Melbourne's professional fire-fighters called in sick on Black Saturday, despite each of them being warned of the forecast for dire conditions, the Bushfires Royal Commission has heard.
In claims later strongly denied by the firefighters' union, the commission was told that 46 out of the 310 metropolitan fire-fighters rostered on to work on February 7 took ''unplanned leave''.
Metropolitan chief fire officer Tony Murphy, who made the statement under oath yesterday, said the absentee rate was normal for a Saturday. ''That's about typical. We have got an attendance problem that we are trying to manage,'' Mr Murphy said. ''It is unfortunate that it tends to happen at a weekend.''
A 15 per cent absentee rate would far exceed normal workforce rates, which generally range between 2 and 4 per cent, according to Australian Human Resources Institute national president Peter Wilson.
