SEE THIS LINK: #NSWfires Fire services’ employee related budget #CustCostLives

O’Farrell’s fire service budget cuts

We’ve been asked numerous times over the past week if the O’Farrell Government had cut the fire services’ budgets? When it comes to employee-related expenses (ie, our jobs), the attached table (click here) shows that the answer is a very large ($54M) yes. 

The Government claims it hasn’t cut the budgets, it’s increased them – which is true if you look at the bare figures and ignore minor details like inflation and scheduled wage increases. For those of us living in the real world, relying on real jobs and real wages, the truth is they’ve made cuts in the order of 8% to the employee-related budgets of both fire services over only three years.

Both FRNSW and RFS jobs have already been cut. FRNSW has so far avoided mass terminations only by temporarily closing stations (TOLing), but there are further, deeper cuts in store that even large scale TOLing will not cover. Who voted for that?

Related articles

• Stop NSW Fire Cuts | #AusUnions #CustsCostLives #FBEU (darinsullivan.net)
• NSW Fire Brigade Employees Union (justacceptit.wordpress.com)
• NSW fire service defends closure of stations during bushfires (theguardian.com)
• Fears NSW bushfires will merge and form ‘mega-fire’ (sbs.com.au)