The head of Victoria’s volunteer firefighters is urging members to stay with the Country Fire Authority and not break away to form independent brigades.
A local volunteer brigade in Molyullah, in the state’s northeast, has voted to explore options to leave the CFA and reform as an independent bushfire brigade.
The Victorian Labor government pushed through an industrial agreement on Friday giving the United Firefighters Union, which represents paid firefighters, more power over the CFA and prompting the emergency services minister, Jane Garrett, to resign in protest.
It’s understood there are a number of other brigades across the state that are considering following Molyullah’s example as the bitter dispute between pushes on.
The Molyullah brigade met with the opposition emergency services spokesman, Brad Battin, on Monday to discuss its future within the rural fire service and to voice disdain for the state government.
The chief executive of Volunteer Fire Brigades Victoria, Andrew Ford, said he understood members were angry but they should not resign from the CFA.
“They absolutely don’t appreciate the betrayal they’re seeing, and they can see the thuggery playing out, and that is making them question what they’re doing,” Ford told 3AW.
“But what I say to the volunteers is you must stay to protect your communities.”
The CFA board, which was sacked on Friday night, issued a statement on Monday saying its members were “deeply disappointed” by the government’s decision to remove them.
“This board remains prepared to continue negotiating with the UFU as we have attempted to do in the past week without response,” members said in a statement.
“Fair Work may have made recommendations, but the Fair Work process does not consider CFA’s organisational legislation, nor its 97% volunteer workforce.”
The board thanked Garrett, who resigned after refusing to vote for the government’s proposed workplace agreement.
James Merlino, the emergency services minister who replaced Garrett and sacked the CFA board late on Friday, said the establishment of a consultative committee would bring a “fresh start”.
“Now, sure, there is a process we need to go through,” Merlino said on Saturday. “There will be a new board; there will be a vote of our firefighters in regards to the EBA.
“But the position of the government is crystal clear. We ended the dispute yesterday.”
However, a supreme court injunction issued on Friday prevents the board from approving the new enterprise bargaining agreement before 22 June.
Australian Associated Press contributed to this report
