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About the authors Gideon Rozner is an Adjunct Fellow at the Institute of Public Affairs. He was admitted to the Supreme Court of Victoria in 2011 and spent several years practicing as a lawyer at one of Australia’s largest commercial law firms, as well as acting as general counsel to an ASX-200 company. Gideon has also worked as a policy adviser to ministers in the Abbott and Turnbull Governments.
Gideon holds a Bachelor of Laws (Honours) and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Melbourne.
Aaron Lane is a Legal Fellow at the Institute of Public Affairs. He specialises in employment, industrial relations, regulation and workplace law. He is a lawyer, admitted to the Supreme Court of Victoria in 2012. He has appeared before the Fair Work Commission, the Productivity Commission, and the Senate Economics Committee, among other courts and tribunals. His research and opinion pieces have featured in major daily newspapers including The Australian, The Age, The Guardian, The Herald Sun and the Sydney Morning Herald.
Aaron holds a Bachelor of Commerce, a Bachelor of Laws (Honours) (Deakin University), a Graduate Diploma in Legal Practice (College of Law), a Master of Arts (Vice-Chancellor’s Scholar at the University of Divinity), and is currently undertaking a PhD in law and economics at RMIT University.
CODE RED: FAIR WORK AND THE LONG MARCH OF THE UNIONS THROUGH OUR EMERGENCY SERVICES INSTITUTIONS | 2
Executive Summary There has been widespread community concern about the proposed new enterprise bargaining agreement (EBA) between Victoria’s County Fire Authority (CFA) and the United Firefighters Union (UFU) and the devastating effect that the union’s power-grab will have on the ability of the CFA to effectively manage its volunteers and fight fires.
So-called ‘consult and agree’ provisions and ‘dispute resolution’ clauses, which are increasingly being inserted into public sector EBAS, give unions an effective veto over a wide range of operational matters and are also responsible for an increase in disputes.
Just in relation to recent emergency services EBAs, matters that have been the subject of dispute resolution because of failed ‘consultation’ have included: