Firecom UPDATE - 12 March 2020

Mandatory reporting of ALL other employment back on the agenda:

QFES has again written to your union to progress the requirement for you to report ALL other employment you have to QFES.

The latest correspondence quotes the Crime and Corruption Commission (the CCC) asking QFES for an update on progress of CCC communication to QFES following investigations they conducted into individuals who are or were employed by QFES.

What this means for QFES and therefore for Fire Communication Officers, is the CCC have provided the following to QFES –
1. That QFES implement a mandatory reporting policy for all employees to report and seek authority to engage in secondary employment; and
2. That an employee’s obligation in reporting on secondary employment should include (as a minimum) the following information:
• The employee’s association with the employer
• Full explanation of the role the employee will undertake in the employment
• How the employment offer/contract was provided to the employee
• A full explanation of the business undertaken by the employer
• Acknowledgement that employment with QFES takes precedence over any secondary employment.

It is obvious how serious this situation is for each of you who have done, are, or are considering, doing work for another employer while maintaining employment with QFES.

The CCC cannot be ignored without significant consequences.  This means neither QFES nor your union can pretend this matter does not need to be addressed.

I wrote to QFES asking for clarification on some matters and they have reported back –
- QFES is currently planning for a meeting with all affected unions in March 2020, and
- QFES has written to your union confirming that the mandatory reporting requirement will apply to ‘all full-time QFES employees, including firefighters and stations officers, senior officers, public servants, rural fire service staff, SES staff and fire communication officers.’, and
- QFES does not state that they intend for the mandatory reporting to apply to auxiliary firefighters, and
- QFES has acknowledged that their original planned commencement date of 1 July 2020 may not be achieved due to the required consultation that must now occur with your union.

For your information, you can access the State Government Directive that currently applies to your requirement to declare other employment here.

The QFES Conflict of Interest Policy and Procedure can be found on the QFES Gateway by clicking on the “Knowledge Doctrine & Policy” Tab and selecting “Policy Chapters – Administration” from the pull down menu, then clicking on 1.4.2 Conflict of Interest or QFES Procedure PR1002 – Conflict of Interest.

You can access the link to the QFES internal gateway here.

Within the Procedure there are links to Appendices A, B and C and the Notification of Conflict of Interest Form 0BM 135.

Here are the links directly to the Policy and Procedure –
QFES Policy 1.4 Conflict of Interest
QFES Procedure PR1002.1.0 Conflict of Interest

I recommend you review these requirements and if you need advice, I recommend you contact your UFUQ state office at ufu@ufuq.com.au and we can provide further advice on your best options based upon your employment situation.

John Oliver - General Secretary

Authorised by John Oliver General Secretary 
United Firefighters' Union of Australia, Union of Employees QLD