THE Victorian Government’s enterprise bargaining agreement (EBA) with the United Firefighters Union (UFU) will be challenged in court if it’s passed in its current form, Member for Murray Plains Peter Walsh says.
The new Country Fire Authority (CFA) board failed to sign off on the controversial industrial agreement during a meeting on Monday, despite its members being hand-picked by the government in a bid to move ahead with the agreement.
The former board was sacked because it did not back the EBA and was engaged in a bitter three-year dispute with the government and the UFU over the deal.
Mr Walsh said there was “no way known” the board could accept the EBA that was on the table under their obligations as per the CFA Volunteer Charter.
In a statement, Emergency Services Minister James Merlino said the CFA board had been consulting with stakeholders and working through the proposed agreement, and would finalise these processes in due course.
For more on the CFA dispute, grab a copy of Friday’s Guardian (August 12).
