Montana Firefighters Close to Getting Unpaid Wages

Butte-Silver Bow commissioners are being asked Wednesday to pay firefighters $109,000 in unpaid wages stemming from their agreement to work 24-hour shifts.

A negotiating team recently reached a tentative agreement for these wages with the International Association of Firefighters Local 96 representing 27 employees.

The union has ratified the proposed settlement and commissioners are being asked to grant final approval during this week's council meeting.

The local government's negotiating committee -- Chief Executive Paul Babb, finance and budget director Jeff Amerman, fire services director Jeff Miller and human resources director Lindsey Moe -- is ecommending approval.

The committee reached a tentative contract settlement with the union for July 1, 2011, through June 30, 2013, with all terms retroactive to July 1.

The settlement provides a base-wage increase of 1.6 percent -- which most local government employees received this year -- for the current 2011-2012 budget and a 3.2-percent increase for the upcoming 2012-2013 budget, which commissioners are expected to finalize in September.

Also negotiated in the contract is a $30-per-month increase in the employer contribution to health insurance.

The city-county is like other municipalities in the state that must amend their pay structure for firefighters working 24-hour shifts.

"You can't bargain away the hours you work," Babb said. "This is something that across the state everybody has to do."

The issue dates back to a suit filed in February 2000 by Billings' firefighters who had been working 2,272 hours a year but paid for just 2,080 hours a year.

A district judge in 2001 ruled that the Billings' contract with the firefighters made it liable to pay them an hourly wage for each hour worked. In 2005, the judge awarded the firefighters less than $3 million in unpaid wages, The Billings Gazette reported in 2007.

The Supreme Court later ruled in favor of the firefighters who received a final ruling for unpaid wages in 2007.

Butte-Silver Bow firefighters work 2,190 hours each year, but had only been paid for 2,080. This tentative contract would pay those extra hours, which amounts to a 4.92-percent wage increase, said Amerman.

That combined with the 1.6-percent increase they are slated to receive this year means Butte firefighters would receive a 6.52-percent pay increase in 2011-2012, with retroactive checks cut after council gives its approval.

Miller and Butte Fire Marshal John Lasky would not receive compensation for unpaid wages because they work 2,080 hours per year.

Commissioners meet at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday in the courthouse, 155 W. Granite.

McClatchy-Tribune News Service