The Union has been advised by the UFU of Australia that the above seminars are shortly to be run – Including one in Wellington.

The letter from the UFU is attached and is self-explanatory. The Union Committee supports the advice of a UFU of Australia and strongly agrees it is not in the best interests of new members to be advocating or supporting the industrial relations philosophies of the UK.

Consequently if any member has been asked or offered to attend, the Union recommends non participation.

Dear Derek

It has been bought to our attention that AFAC are hosting Gloucestershire Fire and Rescue Service ACO John Beard in a series of seminars around Australia and New Zealand.

As a courtesy we wanted to bring this to your attention, and to let you know we notified our Branches of the seminars today.

We have informed the UFUA Branches that it is our strong view that it is not in the interest of our members to be advocating or supporting the industrial relations philosophies from the United Kingdom, as they are not conducive to positive relationships or sound outcomes. We have seen the attacks on professional firefighters jobs and budget cuts which have not only significantly affected response times, but during that period we have seen an increase in firefighter injuries, and fire deaths in the United Kingdom.

The seminars titled “Practical lessons learned from the evolving fire and emergency services sector in the UK: A contemporary perspective on leadership” are being held in various states and territories as well as New Zealand this month. Please see the attached flier.

UFUA Branches are acting to prevent the seminar being supported from fire services in their states.

The link for more detail on the seminars is as follows: http://www.afac.com.au/events/all

Sent on behalf of the National Secretary Peter Marshall.

In unity,

Joanne (Wattie) Watson
National Industrial and Research Officer
United Firefighters Union of Australia