Arbitrator Says L.A. Paramedics Need More Rest, Increase in Pay

Finding that paramedics in some areas of Los Angeles are too fatigued to do their jobs effectively, a city-appointed arbitrator has recommended a 36-hour limit on the number of consecutive hours a paramedic can be forced to work.

In a set of recommendations aimed at resolving a nearly 2-year-old impasse over salary and working conditions for the city’s 355 paramedics, fact-finder Sara Adler also called for an estimated 17% pay increase to bring paramedics’ wages closer to those of their firefighting colleagues.

The report, released Monday and scheduled for consideration by the City Council on Wednesday, is expected to provide an important basis for further negotiations with Los Angeles Fire Department paramedics, who have been without a contract since June, 1985.

A key issue in the contract dispute has been the large amount of overtime that paramedics are working. An estimated 25% of paramedics at work in the city at any given time last year were there on overtime, and the paramedics’ union has urged strict limits on the amount of overtime paramedics can be forced to work.

“There is sufficient undisputed evidence in the record to show that it is common in the busier districts for held-over paramedics to show signs of fatigue sufficient to impair their ability to perform in an efficient and effective manner,” Adler said.

Adler said evidence provided during a weeklong hearing in January was “overwhelmingly in favor” of a 36-hour limit on the amount of consecutive hours a paramedic can be forced to work.

But noting that “real relief” for the department’s overtime problem is “a long way into the future,” Adler rejected a proposal to prevent paramedics from being forced to work two 24-hour shifts in a row unless they have had at least four hours’ sleep the previous night.

“This restriction would mean that few, if any, of the paramedics in the busier districts could be held over, regardless of the (staffing) need,” rendering it virtually impossible for the city Fire Department to fully staff its 49 paramedic ambulances, the fact-finder said.

Little Forced Overtime

City officials claim that forced overtime has been nearly eliminated with the hiring this month of several new paramedics. But union leaders say that assertion is misleading, since many paramedics are working an extra 96 hours a month of voluntary overtime to be exempt from forced overtime.

None of the arbitrator’s recommendations are binding. But the City Council has often accepted fact-finder recommendations as a way of resolving contract disputes.

Among the most controversial of the fact-finder’s recommendations is a proposal to pay paramedics, who handle more than 80% of the Los Angeles Fire Department’s responses, on a scale comparable to that of firefighters. While the top-earning firefighting engineer earns $44,161 a year, a paramedic earns $37,396.

The city has already proposed a 4% cost-of-living raise retroactive to the expiration of the last contract--an increase that firefighters have already received--and the parity recommendation would presumably mean an additional 9.1%.

City officials have resisted offering similar pay scales, arguing that firefighters have a more dangerous job. But the arbitrator disagreed.

“It is, frankly, difficult for the fact-finder to accept that in an objective salary-setting mode, the premium could be justified at its present level,” Adler wrote.

City Council members will consider the report in closed session. In the meantime, the council’s negotiation representative, Royce Menkus, said the city would have no comment on the report.

Fred Hurtado, president of the paramedics union, said the union believes the recommendations are “reasonable” but has no plans to strike should they not be adopted, though he would not rule out other job actions.