Recently the Wellington Local has become aware that a member agreed to act in the capacity of a Station Officer pursuant to Section 66 despite not holding the Station Officers qualification.

The Locals inquiry with the Wellington South District management has determined that in addition the member concerned deliberately mislead management who were led to believe that the member held all papers to the Station Officers qualification.

The Deputy Chief of the District, when told of the actual circumstances in relation to the members qualifications stated “we can only take the persons word for it”.

Subsequently this member acted in the capacity of Station Officer for 9 months despite having no full qualification to do so.

The Wellington Local Union executive is intent on maintaining professional standards wherever possible.

Practices for promotion adopted by Volunteer Brigades and the failed CST initiative will not be tolerated by this Local.

Should any members wish to trade these professional standards for short term gains or self gratification they are welcome to join the volunteer ranks or the Bolivian Army.

The Union finds it extraordinary that no investigation was undertaken by management to determine the validity of the member’s professional qualifications prior to appointment.

Essentially the Wellington Local is not in favour of Section 66 appointments. Unless there are extraordinary circumstances all vacancies should be advertised and filled substantively.

Section 66 appointments have been abused in the past throughout the country.

Furthermore, there is a national policy for the filling of vacancies within District prior to advertising vacancies. This does not seem to have been followed on this or other occasions by the District. The Local executive will be reminding management of this policy and asking them to adhere to it.

Therefore the Wellington Local strongly recommends that any future approaches to individuals to act up pursuant to Section 66 are referred to the Local for investigation as to the appropriateness and validity of the appointment and the appointee.