1 week ago
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February 24, 2026 — 9:00am
With negotiations at an impasse, the firefighters’ union will take the extraordinary step of calling on the WA Industrial Relations Commission to draw up an entirely new pay deal.
The lengthy pay and conditions fight started in March last year, but 22 meetings and several rejected offers and counteroffers later, the government and the United Firefighters Union of WA are no closer to striking a deal.
The union said this deadlock forced it to request the commission take over the entire process through a little-used process known as an enterprise order, which could cost taxpayers millions in legal bills.
Even the 2023 pay fight between nurses and the government that spilled into a huge rally on the steps of Parliament and Dumas House ended in a deal without the need for significant intervention by the commission.
Union secretary John Marsh is confident the data they’ve compiled, along with evidence from firefighters on the ground, will be compelling enough for the commission to draft a deal that would be closer to their demands than the offers presented by the government.
“They’ll find tens of millions to fight us, but nothing to help us,” he said.
“This government is playing on our biggest fear. They’re waiting on a tragedy as a wake-up call, and we don’t want to say ‘we told you so’.
“We’ve been left with no choice but to make this historic move, and we’re committed to supporting the brave, hardworking people this government has chosen to gaslight and ignore.”
At the heart of the pay dispute is the union’s request for a $2 average increase to firefighters’ base wages to bring it more on par with other frontline public sector agreements.
The union then wants a percentage increase on top of that base increment, as well as improvements around recognition of the work and pressures the workforce is subject to, in addition to better health and safety provisions.
The Cook government has offered a 5 per cent, 4 per cent and 3.75 per cent increase to wages, which was rejected by 91 per cent of union members in November last year.
Marsh said more than a decade of undervaluing WA firefighters has left them way behind as a frontline workforce to the point where some firies were leaving the service to take on other jobs in the public sector with better pay and conditions.
“We’re just trying to identify that there’s a disparity between the public sector,” he said.
“We’ve recently had a five-year firefighter who’s the top of her game... she’s just recently resigned from the job to go and work as an emergency response crew for the government on the side of the freeway.
“She can get a better offer, and better conditions and pay, by joining another government department without the risk of cancer, post-traumatic stress and traumatic incidents.
“It is ridiculous, and they’re not willing to address or identify what the actual concerns are.
“Firies spend no time talking about how good they are. They don’t talk about the jobs we go to. We very rarely even let our families into our worst days. Right now, we just can’t believe that we’ve been pushed to this point.”
After the union rejected the last offer in November, the state government accused the union of disparaging the deal in the lead-up to the membership vote.
It said the deal represented a total pay increase of $17,000 for a senior firefighter over three years which was a weekly increase from $154 per week up to $336 by 2027.
The dispute has become increasingly public, with firefighters drawing messages on their appliances and station calling on the government to improve their offer.
In December, the commission ordered the union stop 13 industrial actions it was using, including limiting overtime hours to 24 hours per work cycle. In return, the state started paying the 5 per cent increase from December 12.
The state has also been paying 6 per cent more on penalty rates since that same date.
