A Victorian aged care home did not pay a volunteer firefighter who battled the Black Saturday bushfires, a union claims.
The Health Services Union (HSU) says the frontline firefighter, who works at Narracan Gardens in Moe, was called to put in containment lines around fires in Gippsland as part of a Country Fire Authority strike team.
The HSU claims the volunteer was unpaid by her employer, Aged Care Services Australia Group, even though some containment lines she worked on helped protect another of the group's homes at Mirboo North.
"Sadly this employer is within their rights not to pay our member but in light of the monumental generosity of the community at large it beggars belief that they would choose not to pay her," HSU Victoria assistant secretary Shaun Hudson said.
"They are recommending themselves to nobody. This worker has responded to a state of emergency.
"Many workplaces have policies in place to ensure that emergency services volunteers are not financially disadvantaged by their forced absence from work in the pursuit of protecting their local communities.
The HSU said it would ask the royal commission into the bushfires to ensure the wages of volunteer emergency services workers were protected in the event of forced absences from work.
Comment was being sought from Narracan Gardens management.
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