A new pay deal includes 99 sick days a year. Photo / Getty Images
A new pay deal includes 99 sick days a year. Photo / Getty Images
Victorian taxpayers will fork out A$150 million ($160.8m) for a new pay deal for Melbourne firefighters that includes almost 200 days personal and other leave a year.
Metropolitan Fire Brigade firefighters will vote on the long-awaited enterprise bargaining agreement on Friday.
State Emergency Services Minister James Merlino said on Tuesdaythe agreement cost was "in the order of A$150m and that's fully accounted for in the budget".
"If you're in a burning home and you've got a firefighter bashing through the door to save you and your children, do you think you care what they're paid or what allowances they receive?"
The deal reportedly includes a A$1200 second language allowance and an "availability allowance" for commanders worth 5.5 per cent of their salary. Firefighters who have been on the job for more than two years will be eligible for 99 days of personal and sick leave a year, on top of 65 days' annual leave.
And they could take four days off if a family member, including a niece or a nephew, fell ill or was injured.
The agreement also included provisions for 10 days of community service leave and five days of union training, which alongside the state's 13 public holidays added up to 196 days.
But this wasn't "a massive increase in leave entitlements".
Firefighters could take almost 200 days leave a year. Photo / Supplied
"There are various clauses in regards to leave but to think that every firefighter would add every single one of those leave provisions in one year is just completely unrealistic," the minister said.
Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commissioner Kristen Hilton reportedly raised concerns with Merlino and the MFB board over the deal just days before the latter endorsed it.
The commissioner has been investigating both the Country Fire Authority and MFB and its report has been tangled up in a legal bid by the United Firefighters Union to block its release.
However, details of the report were leaked to The Age which on Tuesday reported on claims of entrenched bullying, "everyday sexism" and a "hyper-masculine culture" in the MFB.
Merlino said: "We can't move on and tackle culture and diversity until we have reached an agreement, so I am very glad an agreement's been reached."
Opposition Leader Matthew Guy called the deal a "stinking, rorting mess". He repeated his pledge for a royal commission into the fire services if the coalition wins government in November.
The MFB has been without a new employment agreement since the old one lapsed in September 2013.
The saga involving the MFB and CFA pay deals saw former emergency service minister Jane Garrett resign in 2016 and a succession of fire service executives quit.
