Oklahoma City, firefighters square off over holiday, vacation leave

Sept. 15--Breakfast was ready Friday when a call came over the loudspeaker in southwest Oklahoma City's Fire Station 25.

By the time Engine 25's crew pulled back into the station and sat down to eat, the clock had turned from breakfast to brunch.

Shift work for a firefighter means going 24 hours straight.

In a year, it adds up to 700 more on-duty hours than a regular eight-to-fiver puts in working 40 hours per week.

International Association of Fire Fighters Local 157 President Phil Sipe said the schedule and the nature of the work -- Friday morning's medical run was in response to an assault -- put a premium on time away.

That's the crux of a dispute between the union and the city over how to keep fire trucks in service while assuring firefighters can use the holiday and vacation leave they earn.

Resolving the dispute to firefighters' satisfaction could cost $5.5 million or more annually, a price the city has been unwilling to pay.

The Fire Department still puts out fires, investigates arsons and works at fire prevention.

But as the city grows, the vast majority of calls are for medical emergencies.

In its 2014-15 budget proposal, the department said it responded to 50,520 medical emergencies and 3,018 fires in fiscal 2012-13.

To adapt, the department has trained firefighters as paramedics, converting engines to "advanced life support" rigs that carry a crew of four.

Those crews provide the same level of medical care as an ambulance and often arrive quicker.

Sipe calls the fire service the "backbone" of the emergency medical response system in Oklahoma City.

"Response times in emergency services is everything," he said.

City figures show fire trucks called to medical emergencies arrived within five minutes 63 percent of the time in 2012-13; the goal for this year is 70 percent, the same as for fire calls.

Providing that level of service means a minimum of 225 firefighters -- a figure agreed to by the union and city -- must be on duty at any given moment.

To keep up, Sipe says, the city needs to hire 90 to 120 more firefighters on top of the 848 it has now, offer more overtime, or buy back accrued vacation and holiday leave.

Instead, in a grievance filed in November 2011, the union contended fire department policies aimed at maintaining minimum staffing levels were making it impossible for firefighters to "schedule and take" their vacation and holiday leave in the year it was earned.

As of Friday, the city said firefighters had accrued 244,264 hours of unused vacation leave.

Arbitrator rules

In ruling on the grievance, arbitrator Byron Thomason found the problem of firefighters scheduling leave time only to see it canceled had "festered" for some time.

A joint city-union committee came up with a solution, he wrote, and the city council approved $312,764 to implement a new staffing policy.

The union filed its grievance after concluding the city wasn't holding up its end of that October 2011 bargain.

Thomason said in his findings that the "city must recognize that an increase in staffing responsibilities (more bodies) can't be accomplished while reducing personnel (fewer bodies). Add in the expanded time necessary for advanced training and the number becomes even more severe."

Quoting from the union contract, Thomason said firefighters may take leave "so long as the normal operations of the Fire Department are not impeded."

He concluded the city violated the staffing policy and the union contract "by denying unit members a fair and equal opportunity to use their accrued leave."

And Thomason directed the city to adopt a formula reserving "day off slots" on each shift so that firefighters could use their leave.

City files suit

The city filed a lawsuit against the firefighters' union on March 19, 2013, in Oklahoma County District Court, challenging Thomason's authority in the dispute.

The city asked the court to block the union from taking any action to "enforce or implement" Thomason's award in favor of the union.

In a decision dated March 27, 2014, District Judge Patricia Parrish upheld Thomason's authority and ordered, with one minor exception, that his award be enforced.

The city has appealed her ruling.

The department has policies in place to help firefighters take the leave they've earned, said Fire Chief Keith Bryant, a 32-year department veteran.

They include shifting firefighters around to manage leave requests, Bryant said. There are times, he said -- weekends, holidays, summer -- when "sometimes the demand is higher than we can accommodate to maintain minimum staffing."

Bryant, who is president of the International Association of Fire Chiefs, said the department has put forward proposals it thought were manageable.

He said the union contract has never included a guarantee that firefighters can use the leave they've earned, echoing Thomason's point that leave is allowed only so long as normal fire department operations are maintained.

Asked whether the department is sufficiently staffed, he said, "Yes." His personal preference would be to have more people, Bryant said, but he said as chief he's concerned about adding staff just so employees can use their time off.

"We approve a lot more leave requests than we deny," Bryant said.

Copyright 2014 - The Oklahoman, Oklahoma City