Contract Talks

[LCFD77]

We are getting ready to enter into negotiations again and am wondering if anyone wants to share something that they recently "went for" and got.

Thanks ahead of time

[Smoke20286]

Many locals in Ontario have been successful in getting 3, 6 and 9 for recognition pay. Hopefully that will spread accross the country. I'm unclear if this trend has expanded to the US yet..

Best of luck with your negotiations. We are just waiting for the results of our Interest Arbitration to complete our new contract.

[DeputyChiefGonzo]

Smoke...what is "recognition pay'? Is it similar to longevity based on the number of years one has served with the Department?

We have "master firefighter" in place of longevity. It is 5% of the base salary for the ranks of Firefighter up through Deputy Chief.

LCFD77

Other things you can seek in a contract besides longevity and/or master firefighter status...

Night differential.

meal slips: if you are held over for overtime or at an incident extending 1.5 hours over the "normal" meal time, the City gives you "meal slip", a voucher that the local restaurants and sub shops tuern in to the FD for payment at the end of thre month. Our vouchers are $4, $6 and $8 (breakfast, lunch, and dinner) If you get all three, that's a nice meal!

Uniform allowance: my FD gets $875 a year for uniform replacement and FD related purchases (the City provides all of our turnout gear... we can upgrade our PPe to leather lids and boots, rthe City pays the standard "tactical tupperware" and rubber boot expense, the balance comes out of the uniform allowance.

haz mat stipend: We get $1K a year for maintaining our 24 hour hazmat tech certification.

First responder and EMT pay: First Responders get 2% of their base salary, being an EMT gains another 5% of base salary for a total of 7%.

Educational incentives: Ours goes from $10 per credit for up to 10 credit hours, then jumps to percentages based on the number of credit hours. An Associate's Degree is worth 10% of base salary, a bachelor's is worth 12%.

Holiday pay OT: firefighters working the holiday get paid time and half in addition to getting the standard holiday pay. For my FD (we work a four group 10/14 four off rotation) the group working the 14 hour night tour before and the 10 hour day tour of the holiday get the time and half bonus.

Hope this helps...good luck!

[Dave1983]

We are in a serious budget crunch here, and our contract is up Sept 30. Since we couldnt ask for any money (they dont have it to give) we did a couple things.

1) Added vacation days.

2) Added a paid holiday.

3) Removed the cap on useable accrued sick time (cash out cap remains).

4) Changed health insurance from a 50-50 split to a 75-25 split. Doesnt sound like much but in my case (family plan) it equals about $140 more in my pocket per paycheck.

We are also only doing a one year contract in the hopes that by this time next year they will have the money problem fixed. Then we go for B I G raises.

[Dave1983]

[QUOTE=CaptainGonzo][B]Holiday pay OT: firefighters working the holiday get paid time and half in addition to getting the standard holiday pay./QUOTE]


Hey, thats a good one Cap. I'll have to file that away for next time.

[Smoke20286]

Smoke...what is "recognition pay'? Is it similar to longevity based on the number of years one has served with the Department?

Kind of, its the F/F equivalent of retention pay which some police forces get. Why be a cop in Toronto, when you can make the same money in Oshawa? Toronto firefighters were successful in getting it, now many other Dept's in the area are following suit.