The United Firefighters Union (UFU) of Australia Tasmanian branch plans to escalate industrial action on February 11 if their demands are not met. Members are calling for a fair resolution to a superannuation dispute from last year and for a proper pay increase. They also want an independent review into workload and other problems at the dispatch and communications centre.
The UFU is calling on Tasmania's premier to honour a commitment he gave in writing before the March 2006 state election. He committed to continue to pay career firefighters in Tasmania an average of the wages of firefighters in all other states and territories.
The last Enterprise Bargaining Agreement with the Tasmania Fire Service expired on June 30 last year. It took the government until January 17 to make an offer of a 11.6% pay increase over four years: less than 3% per year. The UFU is calling for an immediate 4.2% increase and another 4% each year to match what firefighters earn in other states.
The UFU held meetings in four towns across the state where members voted unanimously in favour of refusing to do any tasks except for emergency response and fire investigation in all shiftwork stations across the state. They are promising to extend these bans across all units if the government does not make a better offer soon. Bans will include not charging for alarm call-outs, not conducting education and training programs and leaving paperwork undone.
In March 2007 the UFU first complained to the premier that the trust deed to the State Fire Commission Superannuation Scheme had been altered to the very significant financial detriment of members without their full knowledge or consent. Members rallied outside Parliament House on July 4 and then took part in 20 days of industrial action, but the matter has still not been resolved and has become a key issue in the current dispute.
UFU state secretary Richard Warwick told Green Left Weekly that "members have lost all trust in fire service management and the government and are determined to keep going with the campaign until they reach a fair outcome".