Fire rescue Victoria support staff put creative spin on strike action

Fire Rescue Victoria admin staff have taken hilarious steps in their push for a pay rise, including writing all correspondence in capital letters.

The administrative and clerical staff will also keep all their cameras off in virtual meetings, cc the commissioner into all IT service desk inquiries, and make all the meeting events in the diaries of senior staff called simply “meeting”.

In a statement, United Firefighters Union secretary Peter Marshall said while some of the industrial action tactics seemed humorous, the intent and motivation was serious.

“The union members who keep Fire Rescue Victoria running do so every day on 2019 wages whilst the ‘executive leaders’ of the organisation – not to mention Labor government MPs – have received exorbitant pay increases,” Mr Marshall said in a statement.

From July, Victorian state MPs received their second 3.5 per cent pay rise in two years.

Federally, MPs also got a 3.5 per cent pay rise from July 1. Independent tribunals set state and federal MPs’ salaries.

Federal MP pay rises have increased less than rises in the public and private sectors since 2015.

But the United Firefighters Union said members’ wages had been stuck in the mud since 2019 and today were effectively worth 20 per cent less.

“This would make anyone want to shout, so we are pressing the shout button until we get a fair deal,” Mr Marshall said.

The union members acknowledged they couldn’t take traditional strike action because of their crucial roles in public and firefighter safety.

On top of the capitalised correspondence, union members in the clerical, administrative and support roles will conduct one and two-hour stop-work protests during which they will display union materials on Fire Rescue Victoria property.

More than 95 per cent of union members voted in favour of the industrial action tactics.

Fire Rescue Victoria said it supported employees taking protected industrial action.

The organisation is the state’s metropolitan firefighting agency. The agency’s wage costs rose 5.4 per cent last year, with $104m of the $887m bill going towards overtime.

All wages are paid for through state government grants.

Fire Rescue Victoria declined to comment specifically on the creative strike tactics.

“FRV is fully supportive of its employees exercising their workplace rights and taking protected industrial action in line with the Fair Work Act 2009,” a spokesperson said.

An Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission (IBAC) report released last month found allegations that the United Firefighters Union had “unprecedented” influence over the operation and decision-making of the fire service that prevented the service from functioning properly.

The anti-corruption commission heard allegations the union held influence over the Metropolitan Fire Brigade, which merged with the paid section of the Country Fire Authority in 2020, forming the new entity, Fire Rescue Victoria.