Statement on OT issues
Local 2545 Members,
You may have noticed a recent change in the way that overtime is being paged out. Past practice and our current overtime policy indicate that “the position of the employee that caused the staffing shortage shall be used to determine the appropriate classification to call back.” In other words, a firefighter that calls in sick and causes the shift to fall below minimum staffing creates a firefighter overtime. Also from our current policy:
- Cause. The position “causing” staffing levels to drop below minimums is the most recent position vacated by use of any leave type.
Recently, shift BCs have made a decision to operate outside the guidelines of current policy and instead move an acting officer to cover the firefighter OT, thereby allowing them to offer the OT to the officer’s group first. This created more overtime opportunities for officers and BCs, but at the expense of those same opportunities that were previously available to firefighters. We want to be clear that protecting work is a fundamental value of the IAFF, WSCFF and Local 2545 and we want to ensure that our policies, procedures and practices reflect that value while simultaneously ensuring that all of our members are treated equitably and have fair access to work.
Unfortunately, the change in procedure does not follow current policy or past practice and reduces access to overtime wages and acting opportunities for many of our members. Local 2545 does not endorse or support this change in its current implementation and believes that further conversation between the membership, Local leadership, the BC group and admin are necessary to reach a consensus on any changes to the overtime policy. In the mean time, the BC group has agreed to return to past practice until such a time as we can meet to discuss their concerns. We are in the process of scheduling those conversations and will communicate with you all as we move through this process.
Your Local 2545 E-board