Forest firefighters marched from Trades Hall to the Victorian Parliament, on October 29, to demand fair pay ahead of a critical bushfire season, with a depleted emergency response fleet.
The Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action (DEECA) pays female forest firefighters well below their male colleagues.
Analysis of Victorian Public Service data shows DEECA has allowed the gender pay gap for female forest firefighters to nearly triple over four years, with women missing out on $4255 in pay rises.
Australian Workers Union (AWU) organiser Ross Kenna said: “Make no mistake: These are the workers who stand between Victorian communities and catastrophic bushfire. When the alarm sounds, they’re the ones heading into the flames. They’re highly trained, highly skilled and they put their lives on the line.
“Yet they’re being treated like they’re disposable.”
Kenna said the union’s members are “professionals”. “They’ll keep doing what they’ve always done, protecting this state from fire,” he said, adding that commitment to the job “doesn't mean accepting exploitation”.
He said workers have families and mortgages and they “deserve to be paid what they’re worth … Fair pay isn’t ‘nice-to-have’ … it’s a matter of respect and it’s long overdue.”
Hundred of forest workers from the Mallee, Mildura, Gippsland and Omeo joined the protest. An army of green took over the steps of Parliament.
Ronnie Hayden, AWU Victorian Secretary, said the “entire G-Wagon fleet is grounded with structural faults”. He said as the fire season bears down the government still “won’t pay these workers what they’re worth”.
“This is a damning indictment of how this state values its emergency services workers. Broken promises, broken vehicles, and workers left to carry the burden.”
Hayden said if the Premier, who recently thanked forest firefighters for their work, really meant it, she would “back up her thanks with fair pay”.
[Ron Guy is a member of the Australian Workers Union.]
