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The announcement of the industrial action was overshadowed by a row over 'leaked documents' obtained by the firefighters union, which apparently showed travellers were at high risk. Airservices Australia, which oversees airport firefighting, responded by arguing the files showed no such thing and were already in the public domain.
The action by the United Firefighters Union of Australia (UFUA), which will take place during the Easter school holidays, comes after more than 90 per cent of members in a ballot this week voted for future action over claims of understaffing.
More than 90 per cent of UFUA members voted for future industrial action, demanding “minimum international staffing levels for safety, better fatigue management, and fair pay rises for emergency workers” as part of enterprise negotiations. Airservices has strongly denied staff shortages.
The industrial action, which if approved could begin on Thursday 28 March just before Easter, would involve “withdrawal of nation-wide rescue and firefighting services for up to three hours and full work stoppages”, the United Firefighters Union of Australia (UFUA) said.
The funding from the Cooperative Research Centres’ Projects program will be used to create a method for using remotely-piloted electric VTOLs for aerial firefighting, modify a prototype Vertiia, ensure regulatory requirements are met, and test the Vertiia in regional Australia.
In its preliminary report, air crash investigators said voice recordings showed the pilot’s rate and volume of speech had “substantially lowered”.
