Have you seen the Govt budget hoax being played on NSW firefighters?
Via: http://fbeu.net/2013/01/sitrep-32013/
Overtime blow out a sham
The idiotic KPI pressure gauges on the Department’s intranet site are a good metaphor for the silliness afflicting FRNSW generally these days. The annual overtime budget for 2012/13 is facing huge overruns not because of increased staff absences (the opposite applies) or even increased operations, but because it was set so pathetically low at $10M that it was never going to be met. Compare it with previous years:
Financial Year |
Perm & Retd total spend |
Overtime spend |
Overtime as % of total |
99/00 |
$167.9 M |
$17.7 M |
10.5 % |
00/01 |
$173.6 M |
$18.1 M |
10.4 % |
01/02 |
$181.9 M |
$19.5 M |
10.7 % |
02/03 |
$196.3 M |
$20.9 M |
11.0 % |
03/04 |
$209.3 M |
$20.1 M |
10.0 % |
04/05 |
$222.6 M |
$20.1 M |
9.0 % |
05/06 |
$240.3 M |
$21.8 M |
9.1 % |
06/07 |
$258.6 M |
$19.0 M |
7.3 % |
07/08 |
$271.6 M |
$21.3 M |
7.8 % |
08/09 |
$290.5 M |
$19.8 M |
6.8 % |
09/10 |
$307.5 M |
$17.1 M |
5.5 % |
10/11 |
$316.3 M |
$24.0 M |
7.5 % |
11/12 |
$323.2 M |
$25.0 M |
7.7 % |
12/13 |
$324.6 M (estimate) |
$10.0 M (budgeted) |
3.1 % |
Since 2000, the annual spend on firefighter overtime has averaged 8.7% of total firefighter wages, so both the 5 and 10 year trends were falling, not climbing. The inevitable and self-imposed “overtime blow out” in 2012/13 is simply a contrived prop with which the Minister and the Department are now using to beat and blame firefighters in order to justify their irresponsible budget cuts.