LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Labor ruling Pandora’s box
(Editor’s note: We regret not publishing these letters until now. We had hoped to respond to these letters in the magazine, but time did not permit us to do so.)
“Labor Ruling in Maryland Opens Pandora’s Box” (Editor’s Opinion, March 1994) is inaccurate and inflammatory. I am a career firefighter in a 15-member department and am secretary of my IAFF local. I find it hard to believe that this issue is about lost overtime pay, as stated in the editorial.
My department provides fire and ambulance services. Between three and five people are on duty at any given time. When the crew on duty responds to a call, offduty people are called in to cover whatever may come next. We try to maintain three people in the station at all times. In calendar year 1993, we responded to 1,584 calls. This number does not include times we came in for such things as schools or meetings or worked an extra shift due to sick leave or vacations. Yes. I make a fair amount of money in overtime, but I would gladly trade it in for a few extra firefighters so I wouldn’t have to be called in six or eight times a day. (So would my wife and children.)
No one has “coerced” me into coming in. or have they? Civil service law requires that I live within a “reasonable distance” and be available to be called in while off duty. Is that a condition of employment at Fire Engineering? If one of your typesetters gets sick and you need to call another typesetter from home, does that person get paid or is he a volunteer? How about the same thing happening to a millwright in a factory? 1 love what I do, but this is my career, and I (and the Montgomery County firefighters) should get paid for doing our jobs. No one, including the IAFF and the DOL, forbids voiunteerism. I do plenty of things such as tire prevention and education talks for the schools and never get paid, but that is my choice. When the phone rings at 3:00 a.m., it’s not.
Alan Roberts Cloquet (MN) Fire Department
1 disagree strongly with your opinion as to the impact of the “Garcia ruling.” The United States outlawed slavery approximately 130 years ago, and Montgomery County, Maryland, cannot reinstitute it unilaterally.
The terms and conditions of employment where a collective bargaining agreement is in force are governed by that collective bargaining agreement. Only where it does not exist or does not cover a topic does the statute override. 1 doubt if the IAFF local signed an agreement permitting uncompensated overtime. I have never encountered a union that did so.
Being employed as a firefighter, EMT, or broom pusher is of no consequence. I am either exempt from the labor laws because my job entails making management decisions and I am compensated at least partially based on the success of those decisions or I am not exempt because 1 do a defined job and have little or no input as to how that job is done. Firefighters and most emergency services personnel are not considered exempt unless they are chiefs of departments or other bureau commanders or similarly empowered to assign work to others, draw up budgets, plan strategy, etc.
If the career (paid) department allows its members to volunteer at another department, this is commendable and legal, so long as the other department is truly a different department—that is. Montgomery County career firefighters could volunteer in Prince George’s County. Most career departments’ recall-to-duty provisions in their contracts would make this practice impractical.
W’hat the county tried to do was obtain continuous. 24-hour coverage by career nonexempt personnel without paying for it. The county could have negotiated a recall or on-call provision with the union to obtain such services at little or no added cost but did not do so.
Similar situations have arisen in the volunteer EMS units in southeastern Pennsylvania. To entice volunteers to stand duty in station during the day and to handle the routine transport calls that pay the bills, many squads offered minimum wages to members that took day watch. Unfortunately, this made the volunteer a paid employee subject to the wage and hour laws because there was no collective bargaining agreement. These squads were required to pay these volunteers for in-station time and on-call time at a negotiated settlement rate when DOL auditors arrived without a complaint being filed.
The real question is. Why did Montgomery County feel it needed to man its combination stations all the time with career personnel? If this was a fully paid department, it would be understood that all employees are paid for their time on the job or at a reduced rate for being on call or perhaps overtime premiums for being recalled to work. It is not a full career department. It appears that either the career managers did not seek to obtain and train sufficient numbers of volunteers to man the stations at other hours or made a conscious decision to eliminate volunteers from their department in favor of a fully paid department. This is the county’s problem to solve.
As the suburbs become more urban and fewer people have the time to train and respond as volunteers, we have seen the townships institute released time programs for municipal employees to respond to calls during the day. These employees are volunteer firefighters working for the volunteer fire department when on a call. They are not township employees. If they choose to respond after working hours to a fire call, they are true volunteers. On the other hand, some townships hire drivers, housemen, and fire prevention specialists whose job descriptions include responding to emergencies. These personnel get overtime for working after normal shift hours.
Brannigan seeks help with handbook
Frank Brannigan will be updating Section 6. Chapter 11, “Building Concerns of the Fire Service,” in the 17th edition of the NFPA Handbook. for the upcoming 18th edition. He would like written input from the fire service. Please send your comments to Brannigan at 2041 Daylily Rd., Port Republic. MD 20676; to fax, first call (301) 855-1982.
What is present here is a clear differentiation between career and volunteer positions. They are filled with different people who happen to have the same skills and training. A municipal employee has to show up and work; a volunteer doesn’t. If you want 24hour coverage by paid staff, pay for it.
The ruling does not discourage volunteerism. It discourages totally volunteer organizations from offering hourly compensation to some members as an inducement to volunteer. It discourages career departments from “volunteering” their personnel for additional duties in violation of their contract or the law.
1 volunteer as a firefighter, as a chief officer in a volunteer rescue squad, and 1 get paid to design computer systems for a defense contractor to deliver to the federal government. Under the Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR), every labor hour, exempt or nonexempt, must be recorded so that the actual cost of producing the product is known to the government and its auditors. The use of unpaid overtime is not a violation of the FAR in terms of wages but in terms of costing and presenting the government with a fair bid price for the job. Montgomery County should feel lucky it only has to pay wages and court costs; violations of the FAR result in imprisonment, where the government can deduct up to 80 percent of your earnings in the prison industries to pay for room and board but does not pay for overtime.
Irvin Lichtenstein
Erdenheim, Pennsylvan ia
Not all “twentysomethings” alike
With clenched teeth and elevated blood pressure. I tried not to become totally enraged as I read “Teaching the Fire Service Twentysomethings” by Michael J. Ward (July 1994). As a member of the “twentysomething” generation of which Ward speaks, l am unfairly labeled as a self-centered, cynical, overgrown adolescent who lacks a zeal for physical fitness and who has a decreased mental capacity. Through his article, Ward leads the reader to believe that “twentysomethings” are a sedentary lot who do nothing more than watch moronic television sitcoms and have the attention span of an infant. 1 know 1 am not alone in saying that it is extremely offensive to be characterized as such.
The article cites more than 40 articles and books about my generation and how we handle education, family life, employment, etc. Maybe the author should have gotten out of the library and talked to some of the “twentysomething” firefighters such as 1. Aside from being self-employed and working long hours. I find the time and have the discipline to attend college in pursuit of a fire science degree, get to the gym on a regular basis, and also volunteer with my company a few nights a week. I know that 1 am just one of hundreds of young, eager firefighters who also spends countless hours each year maintaining certifications and adding new ones not just for our benefit but for the benefit of the communities we serve.
To the other fire service trainers, educa| tors, and administrators, 1 urge you not to ! form an opinion on my generation based on ! the actions of a few misguided souls. Please ! know there is a growing number of aggresj sive. experienced, educated, and dedicated I young men and women preparing themj selves to lead the fire service into the future.
John S. Lyons
Firefighter/EMT
Rainbow Fire Co. No. 1
Reading, Pennsylvania
Earthquake coverage
; I commend you on the August issue. While I none of us would want to stage an event just ! to get a good theme for a magazine, your j coverage of the Los Angeles Earthquake in : that issue was super. The issue presents an ! excellent comprehensive account of the j events that occurred in Los Angeles last January. For those readers serious about j their profession, they can read beyond the report of the incident itself and study the i articles that examine the preparation for and lessons learned from what happened. The entire project must have taken a great deal of time and effort, but the results were superb! Similar comments can be made about the comprehensive treatment of the World Trade Center bombing in New York City in the December 1993 issue. Another great issue!
In both issues, the cover picture tied in well with the theme of the magazine. In the issues where the theme might not be so apparent, the cover pictures seem to tend toward the sensational. This is unfortunate, for the content is always worthwhile; and traditionally, Fire Engineering has a reputation for excellence in dealing with firefighter safety and training issues.
To illustrate, the June cover shows a poorly dressed and poorly conditioned firefighter poorly carrying a ladder. The caption was good, but many saw the picture while few read the caption. The picture gives the wrong impression. Sensational pictures seem to always have faults. Meanwhile, inside, there w’ere several good pictures that could have been used; they were both positive and related to the contents. For example, the pictures on page 22 (right) and 24 (left) are effective and would invite the reader inside. I have to wonder why the sensational pictures. After all, your product is not competing with Time or Newsweek at the newsstands.
So, the bottom line is, great issue and great cover. Keep it up.
Clinton H. Smoke, Jr.
Northern Virginia Community College
Annandale, Virginia
I am very likely the longest continuing reader of Fire Engineering. In the 1930s, 1 spent my Sundays in the New York Public Library reading back issues w’hen it was a weekly Fire and Water Engineering. One of my first acts as treasurer of The Fire Bell Club was to subscribe. My personal subscription began in 1942 when 1 was firefighting in the Navy overseas.
The August issue with its comprehensive coverage of the Los Angeles Earthquake is absolutely the outstanding issue of all time. It is awesome. If there were an Oscar for fire service publications, it would be a shooin. Congratulations to the staff.
Francis L. Brannigan
Author
Building Construction for the Fire Service
Port Republic, Maryland
