I am not normally a person who rebels, however when I see injustice, particularly where volunteers are concerned, I feel the need to expose any wrong doing and correct the processes involved.
At this time I was a CFA volunteer and the nominated Crew Leader on this particular ‘call out’ with responsibility for the operation of the tanker and the welfare of the crew.
Samaria Fire Brigade had a very busy period from 5pm on 15th December, until later in the morning on 16th December 2014.
After refilling the tanker with water later in the evening of the 15th, we stopped at the control point to check on progress of the possibility of a replacement crew. At that time we were told that they had been unable to locate any replacement crew from Samaria. We had two crew members with commitments the following day. Myself, and the other two crew agreed to remain on the tanker overnight. Following the release of the two crew members, the remaining three Samaria crew went back up to the fire ground to continue to patrol and black-out.
At 3am on 16th December we had located two small logs burning on the fire ground perimeter and stopped to deal with them. I was at the rear of the tanker when one of the crew rolled past me on the ground at the side of the tanker. I went over to check on him. I asked what had happened and he said that as he stepped down from the tanker rear deck, he missed the hand rail and fell. The crew member was carefully loaded back onto the tanker. We radioed ahead to the control point advising them that we had a suspected broken leg. Upon arrival it was assessed that due to pain levels, it was possibly only a sprain, however we continued to treat it as a possible fracture, despite the fact that the crew member was still able to wiggle his toes and move his foot without increasing the pain. He was very carefully lifted from the tanker to the back seat of a car for transfer to Benalla Hospital.
For most of the early morning the crews just monitored the fire ground situation until earthmoving equipment arrived at around 7.30am to make the area safe for crews to enter and extinguish the fire. Just as the area was made safe, a strike team arrived to relieve us. Samaria tanker was released from the scene at 9.00am on Tuesday 16th December. At this point we still had no update on the condition of our crew member.
On arrival back at the station around 10.00 am, we checked again with the hospital, who advised they were still waiting on x-rays.
Both the driver and myself were exhausted after being awake continuously for around 28 hours and operational for almost 17hours of this time. We both headed home to bed. I arrived home at approx. 10.45am to be briefed by my wife following a phone call just received. The X-rays had confirmed that our crew member did have a fractured leg and he would be taken to Wangaratta for an operation to have the leg pinned. The crew member was eventually released from hospital some days later and returned home, but was unable to return to work.
The CFA initially refused to pay ‘loss of income’ compensation to our injured volunteer.
In January 2011 legislation was introduced that considered all volunteers to be ‘workers’ and therefore eligible for protection under all the regulations that applied to the workplace.
This is when I started to ‘make waves’. The Kennett Government had passed legislation stating that loss of income compensation would not be paid to ‘workers’ over 65 years of age, because at that age they should be on either superannuation, or a pension. Our volunteer was over 70 and had regular seasonal work.
Following consultation with the volunteer representative body, Volunteer Fire Brigades Victoria, I compiled a report, and with a little assistance from a retired County Court Judge, a submission was made to the CFA pointing out that their policies were in breach of at least two Federal laws.
Compensation was paid, and the CFA amended their policy. They confirmed this to all brigades in written form, in September 2016. Loss of income is now paid to all CFA volunteers, irrespective of their age.
The response from the CFA set a precedent for all organisations in Victoria with a volunteer component.
This was all achieved ‘pro bono’ with no cost to the Volunteers of the CFA.
Barry O’Connor.
6th June 2024.
(Note - this is an edited version of Barry's 'Rebellion' story written in 2022.)
At this time I was a CFA volunteer and the nominated Crew Leader on this particular ‘call out’ with responsibility for the operation of the tanker and the welfare of the crew.
Samaria Fire Brigade had a very busy period from 5pm on 15th December, until later in the morning on 16th December 2014.
After refilling the tanker with water later in the evening of the 15th, we stopped at the control point to check on progress of the possibility of a replacement crew. At that time we were told that they had been unable to locate any replacement crew from Samaria. We had two crew members with commitments the following day. Myself, and the other two crew agreed to remain on the tanker overnight. Following the release of the two crew members, the remaining three Samaria crew went back up to the fire ground to continue to patrol and black-out.
At 3am on 16th December we had located two small logs burning on the fire ground perimeter and stopped to deal with them. I was at the rear of the tanker when one of the crew rolled past me on the ground at the side of the tanker. I went over to check on him. I asked what had happened and he said that as he stepped down from the tanker rear deck, he missed the hand rail and fell. The crew member was carefully loaded back onto the tanker. We radioed ahead to the control point advising them that we had a suspected broken leg. Upon arrival it was assessed that due to pain levels, it was possibly only a sprain, however we continued to treat it as a possible fracture, despite the fact that the crew member was still able to wiggle his toes and move his foot without increasing the pain. He was very carefully lifted from the tanker to the back seat of a car for transfer to Benalla Hospital.
For most of the early morning the crews just monitored the fire ground situation until earthmoving equipment arrived at around 7.30am to make the area safe for crews to enter and extinguish the fire. Just as the area was made safe, a strike team arrived to relieve us. Samaria tanker was released from the scene at 9.00am on Tuesday 16th December. At this point we still had no update on the condition of our crew member.
On arrival back at the station around 10.00 am, we checked again with the hospital, who advised they were still waiting on x-rays.
Both the driver and myself were exhausted after being awake continuously for around 28 hours and operational for almost 17hours of this time. We both headed home to bed. I arrived home at approx. 10.45am to be briefed by my wife following a phone call just received. The X-rays had confirmed that our crew member did have a fractured leg and he would be taken to Wangaratta for an operation to have the leg pinned. The crew member was eventually released from hospital some days later and returned home, but was unable to return to work.
The CFA initially refused to pay ‘loss of income’ compensation to our injured volunteer.
In January 2011 legislation was introduced that considered all volunteers to be ‘workers’ and therefore eligible for protection under all the regulations that applied to the workplace.
This is when I started to ‘make waves’. The Kennett Government had passed legislation stating that loss of income compensation would not be paid to ‘workers’ over 65 years of age, because at that age they should be on either superannuation, or a pension. Our volunteer was over 70 and had regular seasonal work.
Following consultation with the volunteer representative body, Volunteer Fire Brigades Victoria, I compiled a report, and with a little assistance from a retired County Court Judge, a submission was made to the CFA pointing out that their policies were in breach of at least two Federal laws.
Compensation was paid, and the CFA amended their policy. They confirmed this to all brigades in written form, in September 2016. Loss of income is now paid to all CFA volunteers, irrespective of their age.
The response from the CFA set a precedent for all organisations in Victoria with a volunteer component.
This was all achieved ‘pro bono’ with no cost to the Volunteers of the CFA.
Barry O’Connor.
6th June 2024.
(Note - this is an edited version of Barry's 'Rebellion' story written in 2022.)
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