Local resistance to the planned reassignment of career firefighting personnel from combination (volunteer/career) stations to other short-staffed stations throughout Prince George’s County continues to mount following a lawsuit filed this week. The original story, which we covered last month on FirefighterOvertime.org involved plans to reassign more than fifty career firefighting personnel from combination stations to other short-staffed county stations during ...
Read More »Tag Archives: mandatory overtime
Prince George’s County Fire Reassigning Firefighters Due to “Critical Staffing Shortages” and “Excessive Mandatory Callbacks and Holdovers”
Prince George’s County Fire Chief Tiffany Green has announced a plan to reassign paid personnel from four of the county’s fire stations in an effort to reduce anticipated “critical staffing shortages” and “excessive mandatory callbacks and holdovers.” This reassignment comes on the heels of the firefighter’s unions voicing concerns related to its firefighter’s mental health and burnout due to excessive ...
Read More »Jackson Mississippi Firefighters Push for Pay Raises
Tensions between firefighters and their fire chief are running high in Jackson, Mississippi over firefighter pay and the chief’s newly proposed budget. The chief’s proposed budget, which does not include any pay raises for city firefighters has the firefighters seeing red. As a result, Jackson firefighters are pushing back against their fire chief and requesting a vote of “no confidence” ...
Read More »Fire Department Staffing Shortages Not Limited to the United States
An interesting story from “across the pond” sheds light on what may at times seem like a local issue for many fire service leaders across the United States. According to Newstalk, an online news service based out of Dublin, Ireland, the Dublin Fire Brigade is suffering from severe understaffing and an unreasonable reliance on firefighter overtime. The Dublin Fire Brigade ...
Read More »Portland Firefighters Seek Double Overtime Due to Persistent Staffing Shortages
The Portland Firefighters’ Association, IAFF Local 43, is requesting that the City of Portland, Oregon increase firefighter overtime to a double time rate instead of the traditional time and one-half rate due to chronic staffing shortages and an excessive amount of mandatory overtime. According to both the city and the union, firefighters face progressive discipline if they refuse to work ...
Read More »Four Florida Firefighters File FLSA Suit for Unpaid Training Time
A group of four former Destin, Florida firefighters filed an FLSA lawsuit earlier this week alleging that their former employer, The Destin Fire Control District [District] failed to pay them for hours spent attending work-related training. Former Destin firefighters David Garner, Brian Ostos, Alejandro Osorio, and Joseph Quinn filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District ...
Read More »National Fire Academy Training and the FLSA
Today’s FLSA Question: I am the fire chief of a full-time paid municipal fire department. Several of our firefighters and officers have been voluntarily attending on-campus classes in several different programs offered through the National Fire Academy (NFA). As a policy, the department provides these members with paid time off (without using vacation time or requiring shift trades) for all ...
Read More »SC Firefighters Desperate for Community Support
Firefighters from Georgetown County, South Carolina are again attempting to raise public awareness regarding the ongoing critical firefighter and paramedic staffing shortage within the county. The Georgetown Professional Firefighters Association, Local 4526, has posted a three-page letter on its Facebook page that provides examples of how the “critical staffing shortage” is impacting the firefighters ability to serve the community. According ...
Read More »Mandatory OT Pushing SC Medics to Breaking Point
How many consecutive hours should an EMT/paramedic be required to work? That is the question EMS workers from Beaufort County, South Carolina are raising following months of excessive mandatory overtime. According to The Island Packet, Beaufort County EMS workers have a long history of working significant amounts of overtime. In fact, between 2015 and 2020 the county projected overtime costs ...
Read More »