OCEAN CITY — A stalemate during employment contract negotiations over work scheduling between Ocean City and the firefighters union has led to employees planning to file an unfair labor practice charge against the town.
An apparent “impasse” in talks between the two sides is detailed extensively in a letter dated Feb. 25 to attorney Marc Sloane of Miles & Stockbridge, P.C., a law firm representing the Town of Ocean City in labor negotiations, from attorney David Gray Wright of Kahn, Smith & Collins, P.A., which represents the Career Fire Fighter Paramedics Association of Ocean City, IAFF, Local 4269.
While there are several issues being debated between the town and the union, the key obstacle that has led to the divide is the town’s desire to change work scheduling from the current practice of a 24-hour shift followed by 72 hours off to 12-hour shifts with mixed days off. The union objects to this proposal for several reasons, including the fact the town never communicated its desire to make this major change until negotiations began Jan. 27 and the industry standard being the “24/72” policy. The union has grave concerns over public safety should this policy be adopted by the town.
“These shifts have worked for the department for over 20 years. Our firefighter/paramedics do an excellent job and have saved many, many lives under this practice,” said Ryan Whittington, president of the Career Fire Fighter Paramedics Association of Ocean City, IAFF, Local 4269. “… 24-hour shifts are seen across the country and known as best practices among fire departments. Changing it would be a detriment to the department and the ability to staff with excellent providers that could affect the great delivery we provide every day.”
The city is reportedly concerned about “sleep debt,” as it is known in the emergency services industry, among its personnel and believes the change will improve response times in response to “five or fewer occasions of delayed responses at night over the past four years,” according to the attorney’s letter to the town’s labor firm.
Whittington responded the stated goal of the department is to have a response time of under two minutes 24 hours a day. Town statistics show in 2015 there were 5,927 calls and on 99.86 percent of the calls the response time was under two minutes. Whittington said the five delayed responses the city has alluded to in negotiations were partly due to technology reasons.
“These specific incidents should be handled independently and does not call for the entire system to be revamped,” Whittington said in an interview Friday.
Further, in his letter to the town’s labor attorney Sloane, Wright contends the town’s concerns about fatigue are unwarranted.
“The Town claims too that EMS calls are increasing and that, in turn, is increasing fatigue of personnel. However, the Town admits that fatigue has not caused any safety incident that it is aware of. Its personnel, in point of fact, are rested. The Town’s proposed solution to fatigued personnel is to fatigue them more often and more consistently by keeping them up all night, night in and night out,” the letter reads. “That is inconsistent with the established best practices of fire department across the country. More to the point, those other departments, your own personnel and the study we provided to you at bargaining all recognize that the best means to have personnel rested is to have them work a 24-hour shift and then recharge over the subsequent days.”
Throughout the letter, Wright uses the term “bad faith” to describe negotiations and, “in light of the town’s conduct, the Union intends to file an unfair labor practice charge” under the town’s code and will request the town’s labor commissioner or third party designee hear the concerns.
The town and the union have until March 1 to resolve their differences, but there is recent precedent involving the police union and the town to show an extension can in fact be agreed upon if there is room to negotiate. That’s exactly what happened involving the Fraternal Order of Police and the town last March when financial compensation discussions reached an apparent stalemate. Cooler heads prevailed and an agreement was reached.
“Our deadline to reach agreement is March 1. The Union stands ready to negotiate in good faith between now and then to reach an agreement. I would hope the town would do the same,” Wright wrote.
Sloane, reached Friday, said it was “unfortunate” that the letter was distributed to the media while the bargaining process was taking place.
“What I can tell you is our hope is that everything that was discussed during bargaining would have stayed in the room. I can’t comment on the letter or the state of bargaining,” Sloane said.
In his letter to Sloane, Wright, on the other hand, asserts the stalemate is real between the two sides.
“In your letter, the Town unilaterally attempts to declare an impasse and announces that it will discontinue negotiations. In the Towns’ proposals, the Town continues its extreme position, which no self-respecting union would accept. The proposals of today are consistent with the Town’s conduct throughout negotiations and the totality of that conduct is wholly inconsistent with good faith bargaining as required by the Code and Charter,” he wrote.
A specific concern articulated by Whittington has been when the 12-hour shift change would occur. The hours of either 5 p.m. or 7 p.m. have reportedly been proposed by the town. According to emergency calls for service for 2015, those hours are the busiest times of day for emergency services, further complicating the shift change process and potentially jeopardizing response times.
Another layer to the proverbial onion in this ongoing discourse is a petition started on ipetitions.com. According to Whittington, all 35 full-time firefighter/paramedics oppose the scheduling change and 52 of the 76 part-time professionals have signed the online petition that reads, “I am signing this petition, as a part-time employee of the Ocean City Fire Department, in opposition to the Town’s proposed changes. The changes are drastic and not warranted. The changes will not improve safety. The changes will hurt safety. The changes will cause greater fatigue and health problems. The changes will ruin morale. The changes will unduly upset the home lives of firefighter/paramedics. I do not support the proposed changes.”
To date, the town and union have successfully executed three employment contracts without much drama. The town granted the union collective bargaining rights shortly after the FOP successfully earned the right to collective bargaining with binding interest arbitration, but the firefighter/paramedics agreement does not include the arbitration clause.
Therefore, sources indicate the town and union will have to resolve their differences through further negotiations if both sides are amenable.
