Irritated Minneapolis City Council members Wednesday again grilled Fire Chief Alex Jackson about rising overtime payments traced to firefighters calling in sick on summer weekends.Seriously? C'mon, everyone knows that getting an early start for the cabin has remarkable recuperative effects.
"It strikes me as more than coincidence that people are more likely to call in sick on Friday or Saturday than on Tuesday or Wednesday," budget committee Chair Betsy Hodges said during a recent hearing, adding that she wants legitimately ill firefighters to call in sick.
Council ire over fire department overtime has been building for at least two years as the department tries to meet a mandate to shrink its budget. In repeated hearings, council members have asked Jackson to explain the warm-weather bulge in overtime and come up with a solution.
And yet:
Council President Barb Johnson said she was "shocked" to see the fire overtime issue arise after the council had chastised police officials for overtime costs.
But you see, that was about the police department. You can't reasonably expect one department to take any lessons from the treatment another department gets, now can you?
On the bright side, the fire department has a plan:
The department hires firefighters to fill gaps for multiple reasons. Sometimes firefighters can't work because they're recovering from a duty-related injury or long-term illness. Some overtime is required to fill behind military leaves. Some is paid under federal fair labor standards because the number of hours worked under 24-hour shifts exceeds the federal threshold. Sometimes firefighters are held over to complete a run.By the way, "Lakosky" is Mark Lakosky, who heads the firefighters' union.
But it's the amount spent to fill gaps behind sick firefighters that's drawn intense council scrutiny. Jackson said he's already requiring that anyone missing more than six shifts a year for illness get a doctor's note. Lakosky said he thought that requirement should solve the problem.
I dunno -- if you work in the private sector and you call in six times over the course of the year, chances are good that you'll get scrutiny far sooner than you after the sixth incidence. At the same time, you have to expect that people are going to abuse any system, because that's what people do.
If the sixth time is the one that requires a doctor's note, I predict you'll see a lot of firefighters take precisely five sick days a year. Maybe that will close the deficit noted in the Star Tribune article.
4 comments:
I don't know if the union contract specifies sick days separately from vacation days, but perhaps they should follow the private secton here and lump the total time into one bucket under the heading of PTO (Personal Time Off). That is, you get x amount of hours/days per year to use as needed, whether it's for illness and personal time (such as doctor visits) or vacation. When the amount of time you're entitled to (by company policy or contract) is used up any further time off that's needed is without pay. The last two companies I've worked for have done it this way.
at my place, there are no paid sick days. no work, no pay... thats the way they roll, and the direction the manufaturing sector is moving in.
as for doctor notes... way back when we had them, it was easy. just tell the doc you 'didnt fell well, ran a temp and had chills' and he wrote a note saying you were sick.
i'm noticing more and more... those in manufacturing (wealth generating) sectors get squeezed further every year. if you dont create anything, you get the easier ride.
just the week prior, they were bitching about how workers had built up large amounts of sick time or vacation time and were paid out when they retired. make up your minds, people. either allow them to use the time or be preapred to pay at the end.
just the week prior, they were bitching about how workers had built up large amounts of sick time or vacation time and were paid out when they retired.
Not sure who the "they" is in this instance, but I take your point generally.
make up your minds, people. either allow them to use the time or be preapred to pay at the end.
Or reform the process on both ends.
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