A row that began as a regular industrial dispute now threatens the future of bushfire responses in Victoria, and the unity of the state government

An industrial dispute ostensibly over the pay and conditions of professional firefighters threatens to undermine bushfire management in Victoria, widely seen as Australia’s most effective since the reforms that followed Black Saturday.

The dispute sounds like a typical Spring Street stoush, albeit a serious one that could claim the scalps of an state government minister and two senior bureaucrats unless the premier, Daniel Andrews, backs down from his longstanding support of the United Firefighters Union.

The state depends on more than 55,000 volunteers for its capacity to fight bushfires, and they are deeply unhappy with the premier and the demands of their 800 professional counterparts.

To understand what has happened, it helps to go back to the 2014 Victorian election. The UFU campaigned heavily for Labor, running a “Napthine slashes you burn” campaign against the then premier, Denis Napthine.

The campaign has been credited as one of the reasons for Labor’s historic and unexpected win.

Andrews, in return, promised 350 more professional firefighters for the Country Fire Authority and supported the union’s calls for a better pay deal.

The UFU cashed that cheque in March 2015, presenting a log of claims to the CFA which called for a 30% pay rise over three years that would cost the state $1.5bn.

In October the emergency services minister, Jane Garrett, said firefighters would get a 5% increase in their next pay packet, because negotiations were taking so long, and that the negotiations were “not real” because the UFU was “not operating in reality at the moment”. The union’s president, Peter Marshall, , called it a “betrayal” and promised campaigns “attacking the duplicity of the Andrews government”.

Garrett was heckled by union members at media conferences, and in December the union rejected a pay offer of 14.7% over three years.

It then knocked back a 19% pay deal over six years in January, because it didn’t include provision for the additional 350 firefighters, which by then had the backing of the full federal court.

While the pay negotiations soured the union’s relationship with the government, it was the other demands in its 390-page log of claims that alienated the 97% of CFA firefighters – who earn nothing.

Those demands include a requirement that seven paid firefighters attend every CFA fire ground; the establishment of a consultative committee that would give the union power to veto management decisions; and a $3,000 sign-on bonus in addition to the 19% pay rise.

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The net result was an agreement that privileged the professionals in an organisation that cannot function without volunteers. Maintaining a strong supply of volunteers and a good relationship between the two bodies is crucial to the state’s response in the event of another potentially catastrophic bushfire.

Skip forward to last week, when the Fair Work Commission issued a non-binding recommendation that the CFA sign the current version of the agreement put by the union.

Commissioner Julius Roe, a former national president of the Australian Manufacturers Workers’ Union, ruled that the the role of volunteers was “not altered by this agreement”. But he has been criticised for refusing an application to let a volunteer delegate make submissions.

The chief fire officer, Joe Buffone, said the CFA had identified 14 clauses that would adversely affect volunteers. The most significant impact would be to remove or diminish his ability to allocate and deploy resources.

That is not a small point. If something goes wrong in a bushfire it is the chief fire officer who is hauled before a parliamentary inquiry – or, in some cases, a royal commission – and asked to explain what happened.

The CFA has argued that the proposed deal would give the union power to influence those decisions without having to wear any of the responsibility if things went wrong.

“What the UFU is trying to do is fundamentally change the CFA and make us a career fire brigade supported by volunteers, and I think that’s an insult to every volunteer in Victoria,” said the CFA chairman, John Peberdy.

Marshall blamed the media and politicians, who he said had “caused great anxiety to volunteer firefighters – and harmed their relationships with career firefighters – with false claims of doom and gloom”.

“The reality is that volunteer firefighters will continue to be essential to the safety of the Victorian community,” he said.

Then, on Friday, Malcolm Turnbull got involved, writing an open letter to Andrews outlining his “grave concerns” in comments that awkwardly mirrored a statement last month by Garrett.

The prime minister then attended a protest of 3,000 volunteer firefighters in Melbourne on Sunday, telling them it was an “extraordinary assault on fundamental Australian values of community service, of volunteerism”. He reportedly told the rally that if he was re-elected, “there would be changes to the Fair Work Act that would relate to what would be objectionable or unacceptable clauses in EBAs”.

The dispute threatens the unity of the state government as well as the firefighters – Garrett backed the CFA, but the premier said the commission’s findings were “balanced and fair”.

With Andrews poised to push through an agreement at a cabinet meeting on Monday, the position of Garrett, as well as Buffone and the CFA’s chief executive, Lucinda Nolan, appeared vulnerable.

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In a statement issued before the cabinet meeting, the board of the CFA said it could not support the agreement, with the exception of the pay increase.

It said many of the clauses “have no place in modern-day workplaces” and that advice from the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission was that some were “unlawful”.

“The proposed EBA undermines volunteers, our culture, allows the UFU operational and management control of CFA and is discriminatory,” the statement said.

On Monday evening, it appeared Andrews would back the CFA, with Garrett saying the government understood volunteers’ concerns and would continue to work on resolving outstanding issues with the EBA.

She also appointed the emergency services commissioner, Craig Lapsley, to oversee the implementation of the final agreement to protect the role of volunteers.