Tasmanian firefighters will walk off some duties tomorrow after pay talks with the state government broke down, with the union accusing ministers of failing to take the dispute seriously.
The Tasmanian branch of the United Firefighters Union will stop conducting practice building evacuations and will no longer silence fire alarms where there is no fire from 8am Tuesday.
“Tasmanian firefighters are paid thousands of dollars less than any other trade qualified employee in the Tasmanian State Service and are some of the lowest paid firefighters in Australia,” branch secretary Leigh Hills said.
“Over the past 14 months of negotiations, the government have shown little interest in addressing firefighter pay inequity.”
Hills said the government had changed its position on how firefighter wages should be benchmarked.
“In previous negotiations, the government have said they do not want to compare Tasmanian firefighter wages to other states and territories,” he said.
“When we provided this information, the government changed their position and said that it wasn’t useful to make comparisons with other Tasmanian state servants.”
He said members were “insulted by the approach of the government to these negotiations”.
“We understand that this will have a significant impact on Tasmanian industry and commerce, but we are now at a point where we must take this level of action,” Hills said.
Speaking after the union announced the industrial action, Treasurer Eric Abetz likened the dispute to the recent teachers’ pay deal.
“People take their positions, people posture, people will go on strike,” Abetz said.
“Teachers did it. All resolved now with a ballot where I think overwhelmingly the teachers backed in the deal.”
He said negotiations were continuing.
“All I would ask is for the firefighters union to ensure that they act in good faith at all times and don’t prejudice the public,” Abetz said.
“I trust that they won’t do anything that would prejudice public safety.”
On the pay gap, he said Tasmanians – “parliamentarians included” – often earned less than their mainland counterparts.
“In general terms, our cost of living is a bit lower here in Tasmania,” he said.
“But look, all those things will be sorted out, I’m sure.”
