Florida Firefighters Paid Overtime to be Laid Off

According to union policy, when firefighters are called into duty, it's an automatic four hours of overtime.

May 21, 2009

2 min read

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. --

The City of Orlando spent money to save money. The city is cutting 342 jobs and 72 of them are firefighters' positions.

Eyewitness News learned that the city called in some of the firefighters on overtime just to lay them off.

It's costing taxpayers close to $3,000 for a one and a half hour meeting, which may not seem like a lot, but some say it's the principal of the matter.

There were 47 Orlando firefighters summoned at 6:00am last Wednesday and were told to report to the Orlando Fire Department Training Center for a meeting at 8:00am.

They were given possible layoff notices. Firefighter Josh Stewart said people from all different shifts were affected.

"A lot of the guys were coming off duty or were off," he said.

According to union policy, when firefighters are called into duty, it's an automatic four hours of overtime.

Eyewitness News obtained internal documents that showed 27 out of 47 firefighters were paid a total of almost $3,000 in overtime to receive the news.

"Its a slap in the face to tell guys you don't have the money, your going to lose your jobs and then spend thousand of dollars to tell them," said Firefighter's Union President Steve Clelland.

342 citywide positions were eliminated. 222 city employees were also given the same news as the firefighters.

The city defends paying the employees overtime and said it was necessary. Officials did not want employees to learn about the layoffs through the media.