Light Duties
Members are advised that there is a written agreement between the Fire Service CEO and the National Union regarding rehabilitation of injured workers. In short, the agreement states, “As far as practicable, rehabilitation will take place on an employee’s normal shifts.”
Claims Management
Members should be aware that they are entitled to union representation at every meeting they have with the claims management people. This Local strongly urges that members involve local executive members as support should they find themselves in such a situation.
HAZMAT Refresher Training
Members are advised that if they are considering utilising the HAZMAT/BA Tender for refresher training then members should ask that it is manned by Hutt Staff for the training to ensure that the training is accurate and consistent with the yearly in-service training held at Kilbirnie.
Management is resisting the Locals assertions that every time this appliance goes to another district for training that it is manned by Hutt staff. They agree with the Local that it should be manned for the in-service training for consistency and continuity but fail to see the benefits of this consistency and continuity for all occasions. They state repeatedly that this is a specialist appliance but appear willing to let the standards drop when it will cost them a few bucks when refresher/familiarisation training is required.
Therefore the Local urges members to insist that this appliance is manned by Hutt staff for all training to ensure consistency and continuity and because it is a highly specialised appliance with some very technical equipment on board and if any training is in anyway in-complete or in-accurate then the consequences could be dire.
Vehicle Extrication Training
Members should be aware that there is a nationally recognised training package for Vehicle Extrication.
It is this Local’s policy that there shall only be one member on a rescue tender that hasn’t attended this course. This is only to allow some leniency towards management to enable them to organise courses for those who have not attended the training course, and not “instead” of running courses.
Our position is one of Safety and Health for our members and the public and is aimed toward protecting members from being harmed, causing harm, due to them not being trained.
Management will see these benefits eventually. Until they do, members should take some responsibility themselves to put their hands up (should they look across the appliance they are riding and determine that there is more than one “non-trained” person on it) and suggest that one of them be moved to another appliance for the shift as they are not trained to the national standard.
Auckland Issues
Members may be aware of some industrial issues in the Auckland branch.
Members are advised that there is a web site operating that appears to have a fair bit of detail regarding this dispute.
