Turn the thread into a discussion about firefighter pays if you want. The ones that really deserve the most respect are the volunteer firefighters - on call 24 hours a day all year round for no salary at all.
From the Weekly Times last year:
CFA Board briefing documents, dating back to
2008, indicate the CFA's career firefighters were
then costing an average
$130,000 each to employ.
But those costs have reached new highs under a lucrative wages deal the powerful
United Firefighters Union signed with the CFA last month, which boosts career firefighters' wages, allowances and other benefits.
A copy of the UFU/CFA Australia Operational Staff Enterprise Agreement 2010, shows each paid firefighter gets:
- 65 days a year recreation leave, with a 17.5 per cent loading.
- 33 shifts of personal leave (sick, bereavement and carers) when they start the job; three more days at the end of the first year; and 18 more days each year (cumulative). This equals 54 shifts at the end of two years. Firefighters generally work four shifts a week.
- One hour's pay each time a firefighter is contacted out of hours.
- An availability allowance equal to 5.5 per cent of salary.
- The right to take a quarter of a shift off due to sickness without any deduction in personal leave (10-hour day shifts/12-hour night shifts). If absent for half a shift, only one quarter of a shift is deducted from personal leave. The CFA must bring in another firefighter for a minimum of four hours, paid at double time, to cover any part of an absent firefighter's shift.
- A change-of-residence allowance, including being reimbursed the stamp duty on buying a new home within four years.
- The reimbursement of child care expenses if called in unexpectedly
- Retirement superannuation through a defined benefit fund that delivers a lump sum worth more than eight times the final salary after 30 years service.
- Free gym membership, if the CFA fails to provide a gym at a firestation.
- An annual language allowance of $1021 a year if a language other than English is regularly used with the public.
- A spoilt meal allowance of $14.98, if called out.
- Being paid and supplied with a CFA vehicle to attend union meetings.
- A motor vehicle allowance of $1.10/km.
- About 25 other allowances covering rescue, fire investigation, training and first aid.
The huge cost of meeting the EBA and employing an extra 342 career firefighters within the next four years has already forced the CFA to cut funding to the state's 36,736 active and operational volunteers.