Brother/sisterhood of Emergence Service Workers

[cst.sb]

Hey all,

I just thought I would pass along a story to you. I was over and my Aunt and Uncle's today to take the girls for a swim. When I got there my Uncle wasn't home, he's a Vancouver Fire Captain and between my shifts and his, we never know who's working and who's not.

So as luck would have it just as we were getting ready to leave he comes home. I ask about the day, in that way we all do - "Busy today?" He says, "not bad", and tells me that he was working for one of the new guys whose sick leave had run out.

Seeing my confusion, (capt working for new guy??) he continues to tell me that one of the new guys was in a car accident and his sick time had run out, and I guess to keep him off LTD (long term dsiability which is much lower than full pay!) everyone in the firehall covers one of his shifts, including the Captains. He laughed, and said that he found one of his old "blue" shirts and went to work as just one of the guys! He had just spent a day working for free, so a brother fighter wouldn't lose a days pay. He then told me that after everyone in the hall does their day, which takes about two months, the guy gets transferred to a new hall. This will buy the guy about year to recover and get back to work.

Now, that is one of the best examples of the brother/sisterhood shared by emergency response personel I've ever seen. (Mind you these are the same bunch that stood out on the street corners after 911 filling their boots up with cash to send to New York)

SB

[SWH]

Hey all,

I just thought I would pass along a story to you. I was over and my Aunt and Uncle's today to take the girls for a swim. When I got there my Uncle wasn't home, he's a Vancouver Fire Captain and between my shifts and his, we never know who's working and who's not.

So as luck would have it just as we were getting ready to leave he comes home. I ask about the day, in that way we all do - "Busy today?" He says, "not bad", and tells me that he was working for one of the new guys whose sick leave had run out.

Seeing my confusion, (capt working for new guy??) he continues to tell me that one of the new guys was in a car accident and his sick time had run out, and I guess to keep him off LTD (long term dsiability which is much lower than full pay!) everyone in the firehall covers one of his shifts, including the Captains. He laughed, and said that he found one of his old "blue" shirts and went to work as just one of the guys! He had just spent a day working for free, so a brother fighter wouldn't lose a days pay. He then told me that after everyone in the hall does their day, which takes about two months, the guy gets transferred to a new hall. This will buy the guy about year to recover and get back to work.

Now, that is one of the best examples of the brother/sisterhood shared by emergency response personel I've ever seen. (Mind you these are the same bunch that stood out on the street corners after 911 filling their boots up with cash to send to New York)

SB

I'm a little confused as to how this would work. Unless your department allows donation of sick days, how is he still getting paid? They can't pay him for not coming to work, and its against civil service laws to work without getting paid, so how does he make his salary?

[Straight Up]

They can't pay him for not coming to work, and its against civil service laws to work without getting paid, so how does he make his salary?

This is a warm and touching story. In a few days I might be able to think of all the ways it's screwed up.

For starters, I'm assuming the guys filling in are working for free. If so when they get hurt on the job being off the clock, if the department does not tell even more lies, then the injured person will not be covered, and that will lead to major law suits for the tax payers to pay. If they are lying, then they don't need to be working there.

When the papers get a hold off it......Lots of lost jobs.

It's sad when bad things happen to good people, but these people are flirting with fire here.

[Java King]

This is odd because my department would never allow anyone to work extra shifts without being paid OT. Working for free would violate labor laws and insurance regs.

As helpful as I'd want to be, I would start/help with a collection or fundraiser to help my co-worker instead. Covering open 24 hr shifts for free??
No way!! If I'm required to do a 48 hr shift, I'm getting the OT. The department brass ain't gettin' no free mule!

[cst.sb]

That's what they doing here. I am not sure what our labour laws actually state in regards to work and shift trades exactly. I do know that if a union contact, which the vancouver fire deparment works under, supercedes employment standards it is up to the union to sort out, via the grievence procedures.

So what they do, from capt on down is work a day, as if they were the injured guy. Now I wonder what the WCB would say if one of them were injured. Now thinking about it there must be some formal shift trade policy to cover someone if they get hurt on the job. By the sounds of it, even if there was, no one would make him fufill his portion of the trade.

If I findout more I'll post it.

And here the firefighters work 12hr shifts 4 on 4 off

[Matto]

They do something similar here at the Police Department. One of the guys here in the past got hurt and so some of the cops donated their vacation time to him. Some cops would donate a whole week.