LOWELL — It’s getting hot in the city’s Fire Department as ongoing excessive sick leave usage is leading to staffing shortages that resulted in the closure of two stations on Sunday.

The so-called brownouts at the Gorham and Branch Street stations happened two weeks after the City Council scolded the department for its eye-popping overtime numbers, and one week after Fire Chief Phillip Charron retired.

A monthly report was compiled by City Manager Tom Golden’s team for the Sept. 22 City Council meeting on overtime spending in the Fire Department. It showed usage exploding — at 13,286 overtime hours — just in the first few months of fiscal 2027, which started July 1.

“The trend in August was alarming … but I’m particularly concerned with the increases in September because those are so large,” Councilor Belinda Juran said. “We’ve almost tripled the overtime hours on a daily basis since fiscal year 2021.”

Firefighter sick leave usage is growing

Firefighters took 1,812 days of sick leave in fiscal 2021 resulting in an overtime budget of $1.1 million.

By 2026, firefighters took 2,057 days of sick leave resulting in an overtime budget of almost $4 million. But in just the first 77 days of fiscal 2027, firefighters have already taken 527 days of sick leave.

If that usage stays on track, more than 2,300 days of sick leave will be used by firefighters — the highest on record for the past six years. The department is currently budgeted for $2.6 million in overtime, but overtime expenses are already at more than $1 million.

At the department’s current “burn rate,” overtime could cost the city almost $5 million, requiring supplemental appropriations at the taxpayer’s expense.

The Fire Department’s salaries and wages budget is $27,947,583 for fiscal 2027, meaning that overtime costs could add up to almost 20% of that figure.

Sick leave tied to escalating overtime costs for taxpayers

Like most union groups, the firefighters in Local 853 earn 15 days of sick leave. That paid time off is in addition to 12 paid holidays and between two to six weeks of paid vacation based on years of service. In addition to rank-and-file firefighters calling out sick, the contract allows union leadership to take days off, which has increased by more than 60%.

Overtime spending is driven in significant part by a “no company closing” policy, under which minimum-staffing requirements are met by paying overtime to hold open shifts rather than by taking a company out of service.

The two stations closing on Sunday suggested something else is going on.

Councilor questions union leadership

Councilor John Descoteaux called the escalating overtime costs “alarming,” and suggested union leadership didn’t have control of its members. Local 853 is led by President and Lowell firefighter Anthony Leite.

“When I saw the union president and the city manager shake hands right here in this council and I thought the union president would hold some clout, but obviously he did not,” Descoteaux said at the Sept. 22 meeting.

He noted that according to the city’s report, 19 members had excessive sick leave use, and that 15 members called out sick on July 5. Based on previous reporting, there was a 300% increase in overtime usage by 90 out of roughly 200 members of the Fire Department.

“We have to buckle down here, City Manager, because I’m not sure if this one day on, three off is working,” Descoteaux said. “I really don’t. I think we’re going in the wrong direction. Do we go back to five days?”

Contract calls for one day, two shifts a week

According to the contract negotiated between the city and Local 853 in 2021 and extended with a memorandum of understanding in 2024, the normal tour of duty “shall be 24-hours (from 0800 on one day to 0800 on the following day), to be divided into a day shift of ten (10) hours (0800 to 1900 hours) and a night shift of fourteen (14) hours (1800 to 0800 hours).”

The contract was signed by Golden, City Solicitor Corey Williams and Leite and negotiated in an attempt to rein in escalating overtime costs.

Instead, sick leave usage is driving the escalating overtime costs in the Fire Department with stations now closing.

“It’s unsustainable,” Descoteaux said. “And I think a message has to be sent to the union — shape up.”

As is its past practice, the union did not respond to a request for comment on sick leave usage by its members, nor on the station closings.

The current contract ends in June, and negotiations will start in the new year.

Retirements add to staffing uncertainty

Juran said bringing the department up to full staffing could help address the overtime issues.

The minimum staffing provision in the union’s collective bargaining agreement is 203 firefighters, and Charron told the council the department is currently staffed at 196.

But filling positions is compounded by a workforce whose makeup is near the retirement age. Several retirements are already scheduled or pending in the near term, including Charron, whose last day was Sept. 27. According to another motion response on the council’s Tuesday agenda pertaining to the process of hiring a new chief, Golden appointed Assistant Chief David Keene to serve as interim chief.

“Because the near-term retirements noted above will draw on the Fire Salary & Wages permanent account, a supplemental appropriation may be needed both to fund the additional recruit positions and to fully fund FY2027 overtime,” Baldwin said.

The excessive sick leave usage, which Councilor Daniel Rourke called “an abuse of time and staffing,” overtime costs and the staffing challenges, could lead up to an unpredictable — and expensive — fiscal climate for the city.

“I think there’s a lot here that gives me very big pause and concern for our financial future,” Juran said.

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