Firefighters' association boss reinstated, one month after sexual assault inquiry dropped

The claims were against the organisation’s chief executive, Bill Butzbach.

Bill Butzbach has been reinstated as the United Fire Brigade Associations (UFBA) chief executive, after an inquiry into allegations of sexual assault and harassment against him was dropped.

1 NEWS spoke to more than 10 volunteer firefighters who claim he bullied and harassed them while working alongside him.

The association launched an independent investigation into a number of those allegations in August last year, but the inquiry was dropped in December after complainants and the organisation failed to agree on its terms of reference.

1 NEWS revealed in December  that the investigation into allegations of sexual assault, harassment and bullying against Butzbach was dropped because agreement couldn’t be reached on complainants’ access to the report.

They had requested a full copy of the report but the UFBA only wanted to give each complainant access to the parts that applied to them individually.

At the time, the organisation did not respond to repeated requests from 1 NEWS about Butzbach’s future there.

It released a public statement on its website today confirming his return to the chief executive position. 

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