Victoria’s fire agency has spent $8.8 million on external lawyers over the past two years as a long-running pay dispute with the state’s firefighting union and its firebrand secretary enters its final stages.
A three-year battle from the United Firefighters Union over a new enterprise agreement could be decided by the end of the year now that a final determination, which started with secretary Peter Marshall asking for annual pay rises of 8.6 per cent in 2022, is in the hands of the Fair Work Commission.
United Firefighters Union boss Peter Marshall addresses his members in Melbourne.Credit: Luis Ascui
A result will cap off one of the more lengthy and costly union negotiations for the Allan government and bring to a head tensions that have lingered since the early days of the Andrews government.
In a sign of how costly the process has become, documents obtained under freedom of information laws by the union show that Fire Rescue Victoria has spent $8.8 million on external legal services.
Most of these fees stem from legal action originated by the union, the agency says.
The largest of these – $2.9 million spent between April and June this year – was acknowledged in a staff email from department secretary Tony Matthews, who said: “Our industrial relations framework makes it necessary for us to commence litigation to achieve critical change or avoid negative outcomes.”
In September 2022, Marshall demanded annual pay rises of 8.6 per cent and campaigned against some Labor MPs at the November state election.
Almost a year later, the union rejected an offer from the state, which would have locked in annual pay increases of 3 per cent over four years and a $7000 bonus payment.
Negotiations stretched on for so long that it became a dispute under intractable bargaining laws, in which the Fair Work Commission can intervene on negotiations that are not making progress and make their own determination.
The final day of hearings before the commission was on Friday.
A Fire Rescue Victoria spokesperson said the organisation had engaged external lawyers only when necessary.
“We are obligated to defend our people and the organisation with appropriate representation when matters are lodged against it or when negative outcomes would result without legal intervention,” they said.
“Much of this expenditure relates to matters the UFU has initiated.”
The spokesperson confirmed there were no longer any negotiations between Fire Rescue Victoria and the union because they were locked in intractable bargaining proceedings before the Fair Work Commission.
”Following this, the Full Bench of the Fair Work Commission will need to consider all the materials, make its decision and make the Intractable Bargaining Workplace Determination – FRV expects this will take a number of months,” they said.
Marshall said the money should be spent on firefighting rather than court action.
“Firefighters have been told to prepare for reduced resources, yet the executive has no hesitation in signing off on $2 million in legal bills in just three months,” Marshall said.
“If the spending was reasonable, they wouldn’t need to spin it before the facts came out.
“Instead of being accountable to the community, FRV’s leadership is spending millions defending their own decisions and fighting the very workforce that risks their lives for Victorians every day.
“This is public money. The community deserves answers – and firefighters deserve better.”
Negotiations with Marshall have been a long-running challenge for the Victorian government, with this latest pay deal now three years old.
In 2016, the late Jane Garrett quit Daniel Andrews’ cabinet after she could not support an enterprise agreement sought by the United Firefighters Union for the Country Fire Authority.
Pay negotiations between the union and the previous iteration of the fire services, the Metropolitan Fire Brigade, stretched from 2016 to 2019.
The Allan government is now seeking to claw back some of the sweeping powers the state gave to the union during these negotiations just six years after pushing them through.
As part of the intractable bargaining process, it has sought to remove the controversial “consult and agree” clause in their existing deal that allows the union to essentially veto any change to operations at the fire services.
The Morning Edition newsletter is our guide to the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up here.
Most Viewed in Politics
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: www.smh.com.au
