Country Fire Authority volunteers at Caroline Springs have denied allegations they are concerned about the future of their role in light of a new enterprise bargaining agreement for paid firefighters.
Western Metropolitan MP Bernie Finn said in State Parliament last week that CFA volunteers feared they would lose their roles.
He said volunteers had been bullied and intimidated by members of the United Firefighters Union.
However, a western suburbs CFA volunteer, who did not want her name used, said her brigade wasn’t concerned by the changes in the proposed EBA.
“We work side by side with our staff; it doesn’t concern us,” she said. “We’re an integrated brigade, we’re all good.”
Caroline Springs CFA station officer Peter Higgins said the issue had been politicised.
“The EBA won’t affect their [volunteers’] operational ability. We just feel as though we’re being used as political footballs.”
United Firefighters Union secretary Peter Marshall last week attempted to allay fears in an open letter to volunteers.
To address concerns that seven professional firefighters must be dispatched to incidents before firefighting begins, he said if volunteers arrived on the scene first, they would begin the firefight.
Emergency Services Minister Jane Garrett resigned her portfolio last Friday over the CFA’s proposed EBA deal.
