Member Welfare, Fatigue and Fitness for Duty Policy

Purpose. Sets the obligations of the organisation and its members for fatigue management, fitness for duty, peer support and critical incident stress management.

1.Fitness for duty

Every member must be fit for duty when they present for a shift, a turnout or a deployment. Members must not attend when affected by alcohol or drugs, when injured or ill in a way that affects safe performance, or when fatigued beyond the limits in this policy. Officers must stand down any member who is not fit and must record the decision without penalty to the member.

2.Fatigue limits

No member will work more than 14 hours on an incident without a rest period of at least 8 hours, and no member will drive an appliance under operational conditions after more than 12 hours on duty. On campaign incidents, deployments must not exceed five consecutive days without two rest days. Incident controllers must plan crew rotations and the logistics function must record hours.

• Maximum 14 hours on an incident before 8 hours rest
• No operational driving after 12 hours on duty
• Campaign deployment maximum five days before two rest days

3.Peer support

Trained peer supporters are available at every station and unit and through the duty officer. Peer supporters must be offered to every crew after a fatality, a serious injury, an incident involving children, or any incident an officer judges to be traumatic. Contact with peer support is confidential.

4.Critical incident stress management

After a critical incident the officer in charge must arrange a defusing before the crew leaves duty and a formal debriefing with a mental health professional within 72 hours where requested or recommended. Attendance at defusing is expected; attendance at debriefing is voluntary.

5.Counselling and injury management

Confidential counselling is available to every member and their immediate family through the employee and volunteer assistance program. Injured members will be supported to return to duty through an injury management plan agreed with the member and their treating practitioner.

6.Responsibilities

Officers must monitor crews for fatigue and stress and act early. Members must report their own fatigue and must look out for each other. The Manager Training, Safety and Welfare must report welfare program use and fatigue breaches to the Chief Officer monthly.