Throughout the dispute, which triggered industrial action late last week, the union has pledged to ensure that its action would not impact on the delivery of emergency services to the state.
However, today any comfort that those words may have given to Victorians was taken away by CEPU State Secretary, Len Cooper.
"[The action] won't affect the delivery of emergency services at this stage but if the dispute continues to worsen we're not going to be able to guarantee that," said Cooper.
The news comes as Australia's eastern seaboard is plunged into one of its worst bushfire seasons ever.
The CEPU had given the Victoria government till 5pm Friday to come up with an acceptable offer to meet union demands for penalty rates before it would consider intensifying its action. At the time, Cooper alluded to crippling ECV's ability to record the call statistics it needs to bill and negotiate with the Victorian Police Department.
That deadline has passed but now the union is waiting on Victoria's Finance Committee to come up with an offer expected to come tomorrow. However, Cooper said if the offer doesn't arrive the union members would consider further action timed to coincide with a full meeting of Cabinet the following Monday.
