Schedule and Overtime

[Jefferson Firefighters]

Jefferson Parish proposes changes to a firefighter’s schedule that will financially harm firefighter families, under the pretense of budgetary restrictions, while incompetent Eastbank Consolidated Fire Department administrators waste tax dollars on a daily basis. Jefferson firefighters have worked the same schedule for almost 50 years. Three shifts work (24 hours on and 24 hours off) until they work a total of five 24 hour shifts. Each shift rotates out for 6 days and the rotation continues during a firefighter’s career.

Jefferson Parish wants the public to believe firefighters are being paid for overtime they don’t actually work. Regular hours and scheduled overtime hours have never been defined. A total of 8.5 hours of scheduled overtime is included in the figures of an average 56.5 hour work week; there is no way to distinguish which hours are overtime hours. The scheduled, guaranteed 8.5 hours of overtime is a major part of firefighter salaries. Firefighters work an average of 16.5 hours over a 40 hour standard work week in the private sector. Jefferson Parish knows it would be illegal to pay firefighters for hours of work they are not entitled to.

Professional fire departments use the assumption of an average 56.5 hour work week in calculating firefighter pay. Fire personnel are paid 8.5 hours of scheduled overtime per week, even though, they might work as many as 96 hours, or as few as 24 hours in a week. Scheduled overtime is included in firefighter’s regular pay schedule. The Louisiana Firefighters Retirement System recognizes scheduled overtime pay as regular salary.

Jefferson Parish attempts to confuse the public about the difference of scheduled overtime and unscheduled overtime and proposes to eliminate firefighters’ scheduled overtime. Unscheduled overtime is different from scheduled overtime and is calculated as extra pay for additional duty, separate from a firefighter’s regular, scheduled overtime. (Vacation and illness or injury leave that firefighters earn, allows firefighters to take time off of their average 56.5 hour work week with no loss of their regular pay, in accordance with Louisiana State Law (R.S. 33:1995).

The only way a firefighter can earn additional pay over his regular salary is to work unscheduled overtime. Jefferson Parish’s high priced PR firm is capitalizing on the pay plan’s complexities to mislead the public.

In 1993, Jefferson Parish contracted with MMA, a consulting firm to study fire and rescue services parish wide. The study found the Eastbank Consolidated Fire Department’s current schedule was “most appropriate” and recommended its continuance. It was concluded; the Eastbank Consolidated firefighter’s work schedule, with its mandatory scheduled overtime, was the most flexible and cost effective approach to provide the level of protection East Jefferson businesses and residents pay for and deserve.

The proposal by fire administrators ignores the recommendations of the MMA Fire Study and is designed to eliminate scheduled overtime and will result in substantial reductions in firefighter salaries. Fire service will be reduced or taxpayers will pay much higher manpower costs. No other Jefferson Parish pay plan has ever been modified without a thorough independent review or study.