On Friday 30 January 2026 I attended a directions hearing before the South Australian Employment Tribunal on behalf of the UFUSA.
Robert Baker attended that same directions hearing and continued his objections to the approval of the SAMFS Enterprise Agreement. Baker has been given until Friday this week to provide a written submission to the Tribunal responding to the detailed submissions filed by the UFUSA as to why the Agreement meets every legal requirement to be approved.
Bizarrely Mr Baker chose to spend time at the Directions Hearing claiming to be ineligible for his own union membership, seemingly in an attempt to overcome a difficulty that he faces in the approval proceedings: the union can identify no record of him providing the union with the necessary legal notice to remove the union as his default bargaining representative before the Agreement was signed. Based upon this, the union argues that Baker was not validly his own Enterprise Agreement negotiator and should not be heard now.
To be clear: the union is the relevant bargaining representative for all UFUSA members unless a member expressly opts out by serving the union notice. If you are a UFUSA member who signed an authorisation for Baker: if you did not also serve notice on the union pursuant to s 75(3) of the Fair Work Act 1994 the union remains authorised by you to negotiate and to enter into the Agreement. We did not receive any such notices.
It is just as well that the UFUSA remained the bargaining representative for the majority of retained firefighters: I have written to Baker on multiple occasions in the last week asking him to identify the actions that he took on behalf of the persons that he claims to represent in bargaining, and why he did not do more if he was genuinely of the belief he was an enterprise agreement negotiator.
As far as I can identify from the evidence available to me, Baker’s efforts at “negotiating” between the end of February and November were little (if anything) more than sending a single email asking for an update in August. Baker has not yet responded to my enquiries about whether he took further actions, and if not, why not? Of course, we can’t rule out that there were more actions taken because Baker did not address any of his bargaining communications to the union.
Contrast this to the efforts engaged in by UFUSA members during the same period including a mass joined co-ordinated industrial campaign through which our members won significant improvements to the Government’s previous offer, including for retained firefighters. That is the commitment that wins industrial disputation!
The Enterprise Agreement is not perfect for Retained Firefighters, we would not pretend otherwise. No agreement ever is. There were items we attempted to negotiate during bargaining for Retained Firefighters that we were not able to achieve including amendments to leave provisions (to allow, for example, leave to be based on an averaging of hours over the prior 12 months). Those are items we are likely to return to in the next round of bargaining. It is not uncommon for items to have to be fought for over multiple bargaining rounds: members may recall that the union has sought the introduction of a country incentive programme over different bargaining rounds, and that this is now a matter to be considered as part of the review of travel allowance. Enterprise Agreements remain a compromise.
Nevertheless, it is a strong agreement for all members. We won significant improvements to the retainer (though we will continue to seek improvements, until it appropriately reflects the amount of time that Retained Firefighters are required to be on-call), universal hourly rate, and by the inclusion of provisions dealing with deployment, and ensuring that retained recruits are paid for training. Retained Firefighters stand to benefit from the health monitoring program.
Most significantly: the review of training agreed to as part of the Agreement presents a once in a generation opportunity to address the appalling lack of training made available to most Retained Firefighters. Fixing the state of training in regional stations is a critical step towards being able to address issues consistently raised by Retained Firefighters, including a pathway to their entry into permanent firefighting.
As frustrating as this process is, I ask that you all continue to exercise patience and please do not take it out on other members.
The union has been contacted by Retained members who want it made clear that they do not agree with Baker’s attempt to block the Agreement. Similarly, permanent firefighters at regional stations are not involved in this objection. It is important we do not fall into division and conflict and remain what we have always been: a union that looks after the interests of all of our members through strength, solidarity, and unity.
The union will continue to look to improve our members conditions in regional stations not just through enterprise agreement negotiations but also through our ongoing work to further build and develop our shop steward structures and HSRs. There are many opportunities for passionate members to engage in your union and improve your conditions in between enterprise bargaining no matter where you are working.
I will keep you updated as developments occur. It is extremely disappointing that the resources paid for by our members are having to be spent dealing with this objection, but that is the situation we are in.
We look forward to delivering you the benefits of your enterprise agreement, and being able to reallocate those resources towards the work that will advance the interests of the review: including the review of SAMFS training.
In Solidarity,
