Author Topic: CFS as a paid service (Read 9588 times)

CFS_Firey · « **on:** March 06, 2005, 02:45:44 PM »

Just out of curiosity.... The main spirit in the CFS is the volunteer spirit...
However, what if the government decided that it would start paying CFS volunteers (per call, for example)? I've heard some people say that they would leave if the CFS was made a paid service, as they joined to volunteer...
Would you still be happy?

This is a just a hypothetical question... I want to know peoples thoughts...
:dontknow:

kat · « **Reply #1 on:** March 06, 2005, 06:00:27 PM »

Well I guess that would depend on what was expected for the dollars

I don't think I'd walk out the door if things were going to be pretty much the same - just a pay cheque for my time. Personally I wouldn't be offended LOL.

But some other threads have discussed the likelihood of current vollies being replaced by new paid staff. Also whether the duties and service itself would be the same??

MCFSFF · « **Reply #2 on:** March 07, 2005, 06:46:31 AM »

I would think that it would cause all sorts of problems

i.e. people getting ****** off cause
person x lives closer and gets all the calls,
I get to the station as truck drives off,
person x works harder than person Y,
person Y has BA etc person X doesn't so y should be paid more.

Now I wouldn't be that catty but you just watch it happen if they started some sort of paid service.

I believe it should stay volley... if they wanted to do something they maybe could give you a break on your EMERGENCY SERVICE LEVY..

Mike · « **Reply #3 on:** March 07, 2005, 08:04:28 AM »

I can see it causing issues, however, as an existing member it shouldnt change why your there. You would also need to look at lot closer at new recruits, and what they're in it for!

CFS_Firey · « **Reply #4 on:** March 07, 2005, 05:32:57 PM »

Yeah.. we already have to look closely at new recruits, especially younger ones, since CFS can be done as a school subject

JamesGar · « **Reply #5 on:** March 07, 2005, 06:33:48 PM »

Interesting subject.... Goodstuff CFS Firey

I believe other avenue for reimbursment should be made for 'volunteers' before you look a paying a wage. Firstly taxation on second incomes for a lot of vollies would make it financial productive.

Other options I like are, as said before by MCFSFF, Waving the emergency service levy, fire levy on rego, or other tax incentives. Other areas to promote would be reimbursement for employers, SAAS currently does, this is an agreed payment for loss of income for an employer whilst staff attend emergencies (only done in last resort when crewing levels are in trouble.) This could also solve some daytime crewing problems in CFS. Another option may be subsidising Child Care, again only on a needs basis.

Intersting area of thought, like to hear some other ideas

corocfs · « **Reply #6 on:** March 07, 2005, 09:55:31 PM »

ive said it before...

if the CFS becomes paid, half of us will get the boot, and physical fitness standards will become mandatory, chances are anyone who is colour blind, or has other sight conditions/hearing conditions will get the boot.
well lose most of the ppl that are theyre out of community spirit.

and also i feel we might.. (not lose respect) but get slightly less respect from the general public. (although most ppl seem to think we are paid neway)

also if cfs changes to paid, who is going to have the money to pay us all??(obviously the CFS but i mean wheres the money gonna come from). its not like we charge money per attendance or anything, so where is the money going to come from to pay... i dunno, at last count how many thousand CFS personell were there???

CFS_Firey · « **Reply #7 on:** March 07, 2005, 10:41:05 PM »

Another option is for shops to offer discounts to vollies... I know Mt Barker Subway gives discounts to CFS, SAAS and police... and there is a shop in Crafers that started to give discounts after the Mt Osmond fire...
If the Local businesses started to get behind the CFS, not only would it be much appreciated, but it may raise public awareness about what we do...

corocfs · « **Reply #8 on:** March 08, 2005, 12:20:48 PM »

the only problem with shops starting to offer discounts is that when this news gets out to the public, we would probably get an influx of members who werent there to fight fires and the system would get abused...
hungry jacks in blackwood used to give CFS discounts, and i know that ambos can get discounts at most take-away franchises (maccas etc.)

i think the scout shop in adelaide used to give CFS discount... not sure if it still does. i know Mitchells (the camping/cool stuff store) gives discount, they gave me 10% off my hydrapak when i got it last year before the season.

JamesGar · « **Reply #9 on:** March 08, 2005, 03:49:37 PM »

I think it's a wonderful gesture for a business to offer a discount for volunteers, I don't believe we should expect it though. Governement instigate reward should be expected however!

corocfs · « **Reply #10 on:** March 09, 2005, 09:58:56 PM »

Quote from: MCFSFF

I would think that it would cause all sorts of problems

i.e. people getting ****** off cause
person x lives closer and gets all the calls,
I get to the station as truck drives off,
person x works harder than person Y,
person Y has BA etc person X doesn't so y should be paid more.

Now I wouldn't be that catty but you just watch it happen if they started some sort of paid service.

I believe it should stay volley... if they wanted to do something they maybe could give you a break on your EMERGENCY SERVICE LEVY..

this isnt realy all that relative, but just as a side note, in relation to these comments..
MFS retainess get paid a minimum of 3hrs wages just for rocking up to there station within 10 minutes of the pagers goin off,so issues like this dont happen.

Good times · « **Reply #11 on:** March 10, 2005, 01:30:14 AM »

Are you serious Alex, those guys in Mt Gambier and Whyalla must be earning a good little wage, Mt Gambier does over 500 calls a year, Whyalla not far behind.

MCFSFF · « **Reply #12 on:** March 10, 2005, 06:51:04 AM »

wow
10 mins is a long time! would have thought it would have been shorter than that!

Mike · « **Reply #13 on:** March 10, 2005, 09:04:24 AM »

The following is a direct extract from the entry criteria for Retained MFS staff:

All rostered staff must attend the station in response to an emergency call within 10 minutes of being notified and they must be available to attend at least 50% of calls. In an effort to maintain adequate standards of fire cover and to equally distribute the work load, staff available to respond to incidents must attend the station at least for 50% of the calls and must attend the incident by riding the appliance at least 50% of attendances at the station. For example, if a station averages 20 calls per month, then all staff will attend the station at least 50% of those calls, ie. 10, and of those 10 calls, staff must attend the actual incident on at least 5 occasions.

Does seem like a long time... although, thinking about it we have 6 minutes to confirm that a page has been recieved.... responding (during the day, especially in these times) has been known to be a lot longer on occasions....

rescue5271 · « **Reply #14 on:** April 07, 2005, 09:52:28 PM »

I for one did not join the services for payment,and I would be against any sort of payment if it was on offer. If people want to get paid well the MFS are lookinf for retain staff at a number of stations. I can also see that if you did have paid members then you would see a number of stations have to drop some members from their membership list,there is also the other aspect that we would attract the wrong type of people to the service mainly those that are after the money rather than providing a community based service.

So before people ask to be paid, we all need to look at why we joinned the service in the first place?

??

There are other things that the goverment could offer like tax cuts for volunteers,or discount fuel or a discount deal like the CFA has for its members through there VFBA......

CyberCitizen · « **Reply #15 on:** April 20, 2005, 04:32:23 PM »

Quote from: JamesGar

Interesting subject.... Goodstuff CFS Firey

I believe other avenue for reimbursment should be made for 'volunteers' before you look a paying a wage. Firstly taxation on second incomes for a lot of vollies would make it financial productive.

Other options I like are, as said before by MCFSFF, Waving the emergency service levy, fire levy on rego, or other tax incentives.

I like your thinking. I believe this would be a better approach rather than paying members.

Or even if the government alloacates funds to a brigade so that you could go out together like a dinner movie night or something similar. This also causes issues because then your crew is out of area.

strikeathird · « **Reply #16 on:** April 24, 2005, 12:14:00 PM »

I think we should stay as a volunteer service, after all, thats what we were joining as... a Volunteer.

I think a relief on the ESL is a good idea, however believe if it was a known thing, there may be issues with people joining for the wrong reason........

firefighter_sa · « **Reply #17 on:** April 25, 2005, 10:52:09 AM »

Hi there all

I would like to see the service stay as a volunteer organisation but some sort of exeption from the leve or tax breaks would be nice. (but how do we police it?) - another duty for the Officers?

What I would like to see is for a full time paided admin/station keeper etc for each of the busy stations - or even one per group to help decrease the huge amounts of paperwork being distributed & processed. In other word try and take some of the politic's out of the brigades.

This is just my views and I am asking the forum for feed back?

Thanks

Wayne

Good times · « **Reply #18 on:** April 25, 2005, 02:22:28 PM »

I could not agree more Wayne, a paid admin person per group, or even between a few groups depending on current workloads, and perhaps a paid Station Officer for the really busy brigades, eg 250 + calls per year. How often do you get 3 crew and need just one more!! Also they can deal with the day to day stuff so the rest of the crew can get on with things.

firefighter_sa · « **Reply #19 on:** April 25, 2005, 02:32:04 PM »

Goodtimes - thanks for the response.

This system is not new, I picked it up about 4 years ago when touring around New Zealand fire service with VFBA - and they have and Admin person in each of the busy brigades to deal with the paperwork etc and it seems to be working well - also the CFA is also using a simular system.

The only problems they were encountering was the person held no leadership on the fire ground (could give advise). The leadership was all volunteer based - a good thing I think.

Again thanks for the response

Wayne

rescue5271 · « **Reply #20 on:** April 25, 2005, 08:39:33 PM »

I would like to see the service in many ways include its volunteers in the direction that it is heading,at the moment there are those that have their own idea and that does not include letting volunteers have a say... I can see the need for brigades that have lots of call's but still have good volunteer back up need to have a person who can take on a paid role in the up keep of the station/paperwork/pr/ and when the crew gets back from a job make sure the appliances is restowed.

This position should go to someone with in that brigade who is willing to entre the service at ground roots and may be work up to a regional job,I know the system that the CFA has works well and sure that person does not hold rank on the fire ground but is that a bad thing?

If you look at the CFA system the BASO(brigade admin support officer) is more than likely a member of that brigade or a brigade with in the CFA and he/she has undergone training so as to take on the role.

But before someone runs of to H/Q with this great idea can we as Volunteers have our say and those who are higher up the chain sit back and hear what we are saying?

I hate it at the moment when people on the VFBA do not make any comments on simple things like where are we going with our dress uniform,or we went on a trip but can't say anything,well hello why say anything at all....

Firefighting Cowboy · « **Reply #21 on:** May 08, 2005, 07:36:18 PM »

Hi all i am new to this website but have been in CFS for about 4.5 years and was a retained Met for 6months.
Just letting you all know that if you visit an Aussie Disposals store in Adelaide that you shall recieve a dicount on most things if you have any trouble tell them to call Dan.

Cheers

Author Topic: CFS as a paid service (Read 9588 times)

corocfs

corocfs

corocfs

Good times

rescue5271

strikeathird

Good times

rescue5271