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I was wondering, I have been receiving alot of heat lateley about going on runs while im at work, Is it true that they half to dismiss you if you get called out and that they cant do anything about it?......I have numerous amounts of people tell me that my company cant do a thing about me responding while im at work is this true?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Art "ChiefReason" Goodrich on
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Unless the passionate plea from the city fathers go out that ALL able bodied men come to the city's aid, you'd better keep your butt at work.
I know of no state law that allows you to LEAVE work to respond to calls.
However; there are states passing laws to protect volunteers from being terminated because they were responding and were late or absent from work that day. The laws are designed to protect volunteers of major catastrophes and major incidents.
Leaving work to respond can be very disruptive and can, in some cases, cost the business owner hardship.
AND, he can tell you to leave your pager in the car or at home. Many companies are banning the use of personal communication devices at work. That would be pagers, cell phones.
Don't risk your livelihood just for the chance to catch the big one.
Art
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Permalink Reply by dcltsc2 on
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If you are at work they can say you cant go but if they allow you to go then they can not do anything
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Permalink Reply by John A. Lawlor on
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I was on a FD in Southern VT... And worked at the local ski mountain.. I had a few incidents in the 5 yrs. I was there... My Boss threatened to Fire me for leaving during my work shift...
As I understand it, If you Abandon your job... (IF you are the only one working...) Obviously, you cannot go anywhere...
I made sure to check out with my immediate manager.....
Most of the time he heard over my pager what the dispatch was, And he told me to go...
Also, I wouldn't leave for anything that I thought I would be back in 10 minutes from .. Or if I thought we were going to be canceled enroute..
I did leave for 2 structure fires and 3 real bad accidents...
I never left for any minor calls...
Learn to be a good judge on what calls r ok to leave for...
Thanks and Stay Safe, John
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Permalink Reply by Darrin Haskell on
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This is the way i view things,regardless of laws in place or not.If all employers refused to let their employees who are volunteer firefighters leave work when called to an emergency it would be pretty tough to have a volunteer department, and the taxes would raise exponentially as the result of having to hire full time men to man stations which could otherwise be manned by vollies.If the supervisor does not let you leave work that is their perogative but I told my one supervisor what if it was his house on fire or his family trapped in a car wreck, would he not want help there as quickly as possible, some people i have worked with do not realise that there are vollunteer departments who are not manned full time.I know my station relies on guys being able to leave their job to do the job of a vollie and without that permission we would not have too many guys responding when we are needed.You have to use your better judgement when leaving your place of employment.
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Permalink Reply by SMOKEnPipesJim on
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In My state, Its the Law, owever they dont have to pay you, and theer is nothing stopping them for direing youover something "else" meaning some other excuse... The key point/issue here is a) an employee who is leaving work 18 times a day is of little use to any employer, while an employee That rairly leaves at the drop of a hat, But discusses the potential with his employer That under certain situations You might be leaving is another situation.. MY 1st Job out of school was working in a lumber yard often as a driver, with to other department members I chose to say that it could happen but rairly would, for me, since I was 2miles from my station, and those guys were 3 blocks from they're company ...IT all worked out the day that I discovered that a wooden Loading dock along the old Railroad siding behind the Main shed was burning, I ran up and pulled the hook , returned into the shed , got the tow motor and moved some stock out of the way, and pulled the line off the 1st due engine driven by one of the other guys who had left to get a rig..lol not even realizing I had pulled the hook...after that the Boss was a LOT more receptive to why we did what we did.. Talk with him about it and look at your "abuse of the system" and how youwould see it if he were your employee and bring that up.. use your head... :)
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Permalink Reply by firefighter1and2 on
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in indina go to ivfa.org they have state laws at the bottom of pages---i have always heard to ask your supervisor. if you are at a scene and its time for you to go to work the chief can write you a letter to give to them and i believe you have a state law protecting you on that.
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Permalink Reply by Paul H on
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Some say the biggest problem in the Fire Service is communication. It leads to MANY LODD, confusion within the department, fighting and bickering amongst the volunteer staff etc. This would ALSO extend to your employer.
I have a hard time believing that if you went to your employer BEFORE there was a problem, BEFORE you started leaving work for calls, sat down with him/her and had a discussion on the matter that you couldn't come to a reasonable resolution of the situation.
Maybe the employer is worried about Worker's Comp - while your "on the clock" at work, your covered under his/her worker's comp - do they know that your covered under the fire department? Maybe the employer has NO IDEA that your entire district is volunteer - we cover 560+ square miles, and I can't believe how many times we've been on calls and the calling party had no idea we were all volunteer!
Maybe if you went to your employer, opened a dialogue, you might even get HIM/HER to join the department!
I'm a pharma rep in the role that pays the bills. I'm fortunate enough to have an employer that will let me (usually) take off work for state mob's (wildland) at a moments notice (it really helps that he lives in SoCal and lost a house to a wildfire...) but he also knows that I'll make it up in return.
Communicate communicate communicate.
Good luck, be safe.
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Be advised that, if you pitch too big a bitch, they will tell you to leave your pager and cell phone in your vehicle. Then you won't have to worry about it, will you?
The line that you want to cross will never happen. Companies aren't in the business for YOU. They are in business for THEM.
If you are leaving work to respond, don't have the company on board with it, you won't be there very long.
They will fire you. Legally. Most volunteer protection laws deal with being at a call, being late for work or missing the entire day. However; I know of no provisions that allows you to leave work. Government isn't going to go down that slippery slope.
Stay at work. Respond when you're not.
Art
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