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Do you get paid for your training?
I've been taking classes out of town on the weekends lately and I found out that half of the classes departments don't pay them for training. They do pay for there gas though. I guess I thought more departments paid for their members training. My department does pay for our class and the hours we've got into the class, guess I'm lucky compared to a lot of others in my area. Anybody else in the same shoes here?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Trainer on
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Pay??? Funny you should mention that. Let me start by saying no, well maybe, OK we always pay for tuition, and sometimes cover meals, if you ask in advance. If you are a member of one of the MABAS teams, they are covered by state reimbursement which for vols is a stipend of $19.52 per hr. Back to the funny; tonight is our pay meeting, it happens once a year in December for obvious reasons, I think mine is $270. For this I made 17 fires, 2 of which combined for 36hours, had 160hours of training and made??? I don’t now how many MVA’s. But I’m thankful, it’s better than some, and will pay for that digital camera I want for Christmas.
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Permalink Reply by Oldman on
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We don't "pay" for outside training classes. When a member takes and completes a class, the department will reimburse the tuition and expenses. We encountered too many problems with paying for the classes first, only to have the member either not attend or complete the class, or complete the class and go somewhere else.
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Permalink Reply by Beverly on
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Pay? Oh please, being a vol in ________, NY (can't tick off too many people because my husband is a line officer and County Fire Instructor) will make you go broke...we do get a $200 tax break but that in no way covers the $ spent on gas, wear & tear on personal vehicles, time spent, personal $ spent on equipment.
Oh yeah and most of our department doesn't think that it is necessary to take classes or drill once they have FF1, or even show up to anything less than the "big one" at which point they want to be first in last out.
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Permalink Reply by John on
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Our Department it depends on if what the class is and where it is at, if the Department is a sponsor of it we get paid if not ???? We have to put in a memo to the Chief to see if they will cover it.
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Permalink Reply by LT Lake on
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Our classes are paid for but our time and gas are not. We are 100% volunteer and do not get compensated for gas, monthly meetings, monthly training or showing up for calls and personally that’s the way I prefer it.
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Permalink Reply by Will2745 on
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i cannot help but wonder....are your departments in poor districts? do you have a tax base for the fire dept?
is your local government behind your depts?
seems to me a little positive action on behalf of the members may help you out.when election time comes up,,get out and campaign for what you want, be it equipment or pay,,makes no differance..
having said that,,,i dont mean or intend that any volly dept should get rich, but come on,,at east they should be paying for your training, and transportation to training.
i have seen lots of comments (complaints) about pay on here and cant help but wonder,,,have you asked for pay, or a raise in pay or funds for your dept , or just coasting along, taking what your offered and then bitching about it?
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Permalink Reply by T.J. on
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We get a raise usaully once a year, I feel if these smaller departments would get payed maybe it would give the FF's a insentive to do more training and make more calls. I'm really suprised with all the answer's so far on FF's who don't get paid for training, sorry but I feel thats not right!
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I guess we are blessed then. We have automatic openers on all our doors. We have replaced one of our old trucks with a newer truck and replaced three of our other old trucks with brand new truck over the past seven years. We added onto the north end town garage to keep our new pumper/tanker there. Our tax base in not that large mostly farms and I guess its that farm raised attitude that keeps me satisfied just knowing I was able to help my neighbor and expect nothing in return. I have seen too many departments that give the incentive of pay and you end up with a hand full of guys busting their hump while the others just stand around. But they showed up so they get paid. The way I see it the day I feel someone should be paying me for helping them out in their time of need and for doing something I love to do is the day I hang up my helmet. As far as training well it’s not just my life on the line and well I wouldn't feel comfortable with the death of one of my brothers on me. Nor do I like the though of having to go to his wife or mom and have to inform them that he wont be making it home and I wouldn't want that put on one of them either should I meet an untimely death. So I guess if that’s not incentive enough then why should we believe a couple bucks in our pocket will be. But I guess that’s just me.
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Permalink Reply by Dennis Brown on
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Our department pays for all classes we take
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Permalink Reply by FETC on
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TJ
My paid department pays for all training. They pay for tuition. If on duty we allow one person per shift to attend an outside class or training while on duty. The department will hire in one person on OT to backfill the vacancy. If three guys want to go to the same class, then seniority pulls rank on the covered spot and the other two are required to find a swap. Now if the class is a requirement for your job description; like going to the NFA for a two-week Command and Control - you are covered and paid for your entire program.
OT will be paid for all off-duty mandatory training. Our annual refreshers; EMT-I or Paramedic; Hazmat Technician; Technical Rescue Refreshers and the Hospital's monthly con-ed in-services are done per contract (off-duty) and paid at the OT rate.
As far as vehicle, travel expenses and fuel. We only use a department vehicle, (utility) city gas and travel time is not covered under compensation. (We had to give a little during nego - LOL)
This was set-up 15 years ago by a past Chief who realized that lengthy on-shift training was not possible in a busy department. He was also a great advocate for continuing education.
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