SEEKING PUBLIC DONATIONS - DONATE VIA MYCAUSE cheque or bank deposit

Volunteer Fire Brigades Victoria has launched a crowdfunding campaign to give the public the chance to support the work we are doing to protect, advocate and represent CFA volunteers, including our Supreme Court action.

The campaign ‘Supporting and Valuing our CFA Volunteers’ is now live on Australian crowdfunding platform, mycause at www.mycause.com.au/cfa

To donate by cheque:

Cheques should be made out to:

VFBV – Valuing Volunteers Fund

And posted to:

VFBV

PO Box 453

Mt Waverley Vic. 3151

You can also donate via Direct Deposit to this account:

As you know, VFBV is fighting to maintain CFA as a volunteer based and fully integrated fire and emergency service with employees fully integrated with volunteers to provide seamless public safety services to Victorians. This is what CFA is under our CFA Act.

The community volunteer nature of CFA is under attack from the industrial deal done by the Andrews Victorian Government and Peter Marshall of the United Firefighters Union. The deal negatively impacts on CFA as a volunteer based and fully integrated organisation, its operations and support for volunteers including consultation.

It is an attempt to change the nature of CFA by using an anomaly in the Commonwealth Workplace Relations Act which enables an EBA to override state legislation once the EBA is registered by the Commonwealth Fair Work Commission.

The Supreme Court trial on the lawfulness of the new CFA Board adopting the proposed CFA/UFU Enterprise Bargaining Agreement will begin on 22 September 2016 and should run for up to five days.

The CFA/United Firefighters Union Enterprise Bargaining Agreement, approved by the new government-appointed CFA Board, would see:

• The powers of the Chief Officer overridden;
• The union given power of veto on issues affecting volunteer based and fully integrated organisation, operations and support;
• Restrictions in the EBA on effective volunteer consultation rights under the CFA Volunteer Charter;
• Other clauses that are contrary to the CFA Act, and
• Volunteers treated as second class just because they are not paid.

Only Volunteer Fire Brigades Victoria is left to defend CFA from the deal and its detrimental effect for CFA services to the Victorian public.

The Emergency Services Minister Jane Garrett shared our volunteer concerns, refused to support the deal and resigned in June. The CFA Board that was opposing the deal was sacked by the Andrews Government. The CEO, Lucinda Nolan and Chief Officer, Joe Buffone subsequently resigned in protest over the deal. The current CFA Board and administration are failing to stand up for CFA volunteers and kow-towing to unlawful UFU demands.

The campaign, particularly through the courts, costs money. Volunteer Fire Brigades Victoria does not intend to use government grant funds or individual brigade affiliation fees to pay for the campaign, so we are asking the community that we serve to support us. This funding will be used to pay for Supreme Court and other action to preserve and protect the powers of the CFA Act.

VFBV and volunteers have made it very clear that we are not against our paid colleagues and have no interest in interfering in their legitimate pay and conditions.

Our vision is for CFA to be a modern and contemporary emergency service where volunteers and paid staff work side by side as equals and respect one another.

Encouraging, maintaining and strengthening the capacity of volunteers is vitally important for Victoria, and we are calling on those who value the capacity, determination and service of the volunteers to please support our campaign in the Supreme Court on September 22 by donating to our campaign on mycause.

Members of the public can learn more and make a donation online here.

See the media release here.

CFA’s Fire Safety Pledge promotion is now open and will run until 3 December 2015.

Brigades are asked to encourage members of the public to visit;  http://thefiresafetypledge.com.au/ and make a simple pledge that they will undertake activities to reduce their risk or better prepare themselves for fire.

It is designed to be an additional and innovative fun way to engage with the community around fire safety this year.

Members making the pledge are invited to nominate their local CFA brigade – there are prizes for the participant, and the Brigade can win up to $1,000 to be used for anything it feels would benefit the brigade and local community.

Brigades are encouraged to promote this campaign by;

• Sharing on Social Media
• Emails by individual Brigade members to families, friends and other contacts
• iPad/Tablet/Laptop stands at CFA Open Days, Ritchies supermarket displays, Bunnings BBQ events or other planned community engagement events
• Engaging local media to write a story
• Engaging key local figures to promote the pledge, such as MPs, Mayors, business leaders or the leaders of sporting/community clubs.

Download the Fire Safety Pledge kit for volunteers here.

This promotion has been supported and endorsed by our Joint VFBV/CFA Community Safety Committee and Brigades are encouraged to take it up at the local level.

INTEGRATED BRIGADES FORUM

The detailed report from VFBV’s fourth annual Integrated Brigades Forum has been released – see below to download a copy.

With the theme of best practice integration for CFA, the forum included CFA Chief Officer Euan Ferguson and Deputy Chief Officer Joe Buffone working alongside VFBV officials and 52 Brigade members including senior volunteers and a number of Operations Officers/OICs from integrated Brigades.

The forum looked at the challenges faced by particular integrated Brigades, day to day practicalities, future models for integration, case studies on how well different arrangements have worked and the building of a help network for Brigade members and leaders as they go through the integration process or fine tune their integrated Brigade.

The forum was facilitated by members of VFBV’s State Integrated Brigades Reference Panel who began work early in 2012 on a framework for the future development of a Code of Best Practice for CFA Integration.

The Chief and Deputy have indicated their support for follow up work to progress many of the issues and opportunities confronting CFA’s Integrated Service Delivery Model.  VFBV will work with CFA towards the establishment of a Joint Working Party or Reference Group built upon the good initial work of VFBV’s State Reference Panel.