Countywide : Firefighters Protest Plan on Part-Time Help

County firefighters picketed county government headquarters Tuesday to protest a proposal to hire temporary employees as a cost-cutting move.

As the Board of Supervisors met inside, more than 200 members of Local 1014 marched outside the Hall of Administration on the eve of a hearing with a state mediator to discuss the proposal.

County officials said it would be cheaper to hire temporary personnel than to pay the county’s 500 or so firefighters increased overtime required by a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that took effect April 15.

John Sibley, county employee relations director, said the ruling that government employees must be paid overtime could cost the county $2.2 million per year in extra pay for the firefighters.

He said the county hoped to cut the figure to $800,000 by hiring part-time firefighters and rescheduling work weeks and vacations of the permanent staff.

As it is, Sibley said, the firefighters received an automatic increase of $1,000 a year because of the Supreme Court ruling. The firefighters average 56 hours a week and must be paid overtime after working 53 hours.

Sibley said an entry-level firefighter averages $1,960 per month, or $260 per 24-hour shift. He said the part-timers would get the beginner’s salary and fewer benefits than the permanent staff.

But Larry S. Simcoe, president of the firefighters local, said the union agreed to return pay earned by its members while they sleep during portions of their 24-hour shifts in exchange for improved medical, dental and disability benefits.

Simcoe contended that the county’s proposal would jeopardize community safety. Firefighters “work as a unit, a team, we depend on each other,” Simcoe said. “You lose that continuity when you have part-time people.”

But County Fire Chief Larry J. Holms vehemently denied that safety would be threatened.

Part-timers “would be hired from people who had graduated from academies and were certified firefighters,” he said, just as permanent beginning personnel are. He said they would work under experienced captains.

A state mediator is scheduled to take part in negotiations today between the county and the union.