Victorian firefighters have been threatened with legal action by their own union if they do not pay a $644 levy created to pay for the union’s court battles.
Debt recovery letters were sent to some United Firefighters Union (UFU) members in September, a month after the release of the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission’s (IBAC) Operation Richmond report, which was delayed for years due to legal challenges led by the union and its secretary, Peter Marshall.
The move has shocked and frustrated some firefighters who are being asked to foot the bill for the union’s protracted legal battles while being threatened with more legal action to collect these payments.
IBAC’s Operation Richmond focused on Marshall and the UFU’s interactions with the state government at the height of a pay dispute in 2016. It found then-premier Daniel Andrews’ decision to sideline a senior minister and strike a secret pay deal with firefighters gave Marshall “extraordinary influence” over one of the government’s most contentious reforms and exposed the state to the risk of corruption.
In addition to his effort to suppress the IBAC report, which was rejected by the Supreme Court in July, Marshall and the UFU have also been tied up in legal proceedings over a new pay agreement.
Last month, lawyers for the union sent letters to members who were yet to pay the $644.82 Court Case Funding (CCF) levy, warning that they had been given instruction to begin legal proceedings if outstanding payments were not made by 12pm on October 9.
“If proceedings are commenced, in addition to being required to pay the CCF levy, you may also be ordered to pay interest and costs,” says a copy of the letter, seen by The Age.
The correspondence goes on to say that the decision to impose the levy was made by the union’s senior leadership, the branch committee of management (BCOM), in August last year, and that members were contacted about paying it in May.
The letter also says failure to pay the charge represented a breach of the union’s own rules.
When contacted by The Age, Marshall contradicted the details of the legal letter by claiming that the decision was not made by his BCOM. Instead, he said, the levy was the subject of “five lengthy UFU member meetings” which were published on the union’s internal bulletin system.
“The purpose of the five meetings was to ensure there was detailed consultation, discussion and feedback prior to any decision being made by the members,” Marshall said.
“The matter was ultimately voted on unanimously.”
Marshall did not specify where or how this vote took place. He did not answer questions about whether the levy was paying for the union’s legal proceedings against Victoria’s corruption watchdog.
A UFU member, speaking anonymously to avoid retribution, said they did not know about the levy until they received the letter.
“Members are being chased for the never-ending legal fights. We’re just over it,” the member said.
The member suggested Marshall appeared to believe “his ‘consult and agree’ process only matters when it involves going against [Fire Rescue Victoria] executives because he didn’t consult and allow us to agree or disagree”.
Another member, also speaking on the condition of anonymity, said it was bizarre and ironic to use legal letters to chase firefighters for the charge.
“Are we being asked to pay for the legal threats made against us?”
Marshall said members could contact him at any time of day or night if they had concerns.
In 2014, the UFU introduced a similar charge while it fought for a new pay deal with the Napthine government.
The levy was still in effect in 2018 as negotiations dragged on with the Andrews government. Some members quit the union in protest after receiving bills totalling more than $1000, prompting a review of the charge.
Even after these pay disputes ended, Marshall and the UFU were in and out of court for years fighting against the release of IBAC’s Operation Richmond. IBAC’s investigation began in 2018 but was suppressed by legal challenges led by Marshall and the union as joint plaintiffs.
The UFU has also been negotiating a new pay deal since 2022, when it requested annual pay rises of 8.6 per cent but refused to budge on removing other conditions, including controversial “consult and agree” clauses inserted into Country Fire Authority and Metropolitan Fire Brigade pay deals before FRV was created.
Negotiations have dragged on for so long that the dispute went to an intractable bargaining process at the Fair Work Commission, which has been deliberating on the matter since December.
In November, The Age revealed FRV had spent almost $9 million on external lawyers over the previous two years, with most of this related to cases involving the union. At the time, Marshall criticised the agency for its spending on legal bills, saying the cash should instead have been directed to firefighting.
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