Dear Editor,
I would like to offer another viewpoint and hopefully shed some
light on the recent issues debated on these pages regarding
firefighter pay, overtime, retirement and binding arbitration.
Dear Editor,
I would like to offer another viewpoint and hopefully shed some light on the recent issues debated on these pages regarding firefighter pay, overtime, retirement and binding arbitration. Please let me preface this letter by saying that I stand nothing to gain by bringing these matters to light, I am not an employee of the Gilroy Fire Department, just one of its concerned citizens.
With respect to the overtime issue, It should be known that the fire department is bound by a “minimum staffing” level which states that a specific number of firefighters must be on duty at any given time within the city and manning each fire engine. Many of our firefighters are earning overtime by an obligation to remain at work until they are relieved by another person of equal rank. If the firefighter relieving the on-duty person calls in sick or takes a vacation day, and there are not enough relief personnel, then the on-duty firefighter is forced to work an additional 24-hour shift.
For the safety of the firefighters and the public they serve it is imperative to have the necessary number of firefighters on each engine. The overtime issue is not neccessarily a failure of management, instead the department is simply adhering to the contract agreed to by the city. The obvious solution would be to hire additional firefighters as relief personnel, however, as the city manager would tell you, it is less expensive for the city to pay overtime to its employees than it is to hire the additional staff.
The divisive issue of retirement at age 50 with 90 percent of salary is also full of misconceptions. The way this issue has been represented in these pages implies that any firefighter once attaining 50 years of age could retire with almost his or her entire salary intact. What has not been mentioned is that a firefighter must work a full 30 years to attain that 90 percent retirement. To obtain the full benefit of 50 with 90 percent retirement pay, a person would have to have been hired at the age of 20. According to the International Association of Firefighters, the average age of hire for a professional firefighter is 26, average retirement age is 58 and life expectancy averages 62.
Lastly, the issue of binding arbitration was brought to the table by the firefighters’ union to secure fair and equitable labor contracts with the city without the need to strike. The arbitrators used are non biased, impartial and agreed on by both the city and union. Arbitrators are used as a last resort when negotiations, and mediation result in impasse. Binding arbitration is truly the only way for the firefighters’ union to leverage a fair labor contract.
Jim Schulte, Gilroy
