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Permalink Reply by John Crabbe on January 25, 2011 at 11:56pm

During arbitration in Clark County NV the arbitrator pointed out that a firefighter used 48 days of sick leave working only 63 of his 121 shift days, but worked 92 shifts of overtime or callback pay to bring his annual pay to $232,187 before benefits. Clearly manipulating the system

I have a few thoughts on this and are contradictory for purpose of discussion. First off, this should and most likely will be a case to which depts will now focus on in arbitrations in the future. This shows how the effects of a few can hurt the greater good of all.

However, to claim clear manipulation of the system and obvious sick time abuse doesn't always take in considerations. Number one is it needs to be remembered that these are a person's earned benefits and unless there is specific proof of abuse, it can be difficult to claim. As mentioned in the link, management does also bear some responsibility here as well, because if there is that much sick time being used, where is the inquiry?

A couple years ago, there were unproven claims of sick time abuse made by our mayor and in turn management stated that a person had to be cleared by a doctor to return to work. If one took off for a family member, the member would have to have been seen by the doctor. The problem there is that people taking a day here or there were dinged as "abusers" and there were several issues related to going to the doctor. However, when a person uses this many sick days, at some point management should step in and ask as to why or request a doctor excuse.

Now, the issue can also come down to what else created the sick time and the definitions of things like FMLA. If one is on family medical leave, for whatever reason, they should be able to use the sick time they have earned. When it comes to working on another shift or OT during such time, then that depends on the contract. However, what does remain is the reasoning for being off on sick time.....to just simply point fingers and claim abuse doesn't account for the bigger picture.

Now as for OT. Well I know from other articles and stories on Clark County, they have a significant personnel shortage, the county has refused to hire, thus creating OT. It means someone has to work the shifts. Now, I have seen numerous such articles of "excessive OT" and the picture painted, but have yet to see any author of such article to mention the fact of the toll working so much OT to bring in such income takes. As long as the OT system is fair and everyone has a chance, I have no problem with one person pulling in large sums of OT money. It means they don't have the same downtime as others. Once again insinuating that sick time was used so one could work OT doesn't account for the real picture necessarily. If one is consistently ordered in to work, that can create a toll and thus lead to increased use of sick time to "catch a break"....any consideration of that?


Besides the obvious WTF, we wonder why the public has turned on firefighters in some areas as a result of the actions of a few

I hope I addressed the "obvious WTF" in that it really may not be as obvious considering the larger picture. The public turning on us for the most part is an unwarranted attack, carried on by the lies being perpetuated against public workers and their benefits. The public worker has been demonized by political leaders and attacks insinuating the wage and benefits are the cause of economic woes and stories like this in such a hot topic become easy fodder for the media. However, the link to the article the OP posted, nor the link to the paper even mentions nor hints at the same stuff I just mentioned here. There is a bigger picture, people just don't want to look.



Now reading some comments in the paper section, it is clear our fight is defined. You have people attacking the fact public workers can retire early and bank sick time etc, yet nary is there mention of the reasoning for such. That most public employees do not collect social security and the banked sick time helps to transition for medical care. Little is there mention about the issues with having older firefighters on the job and the toll the job takes on the body. No, instead we see people drinking up the mantra of the demonized public worker as the source of all woes. Yes, examples like this do stand out and we can be our own worst enemies, but the very simple fact remains, the larger picture must be looked at.

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