Weather Forecast
63°, mostly cloudy
No one is "STALKING" the fire dept. Believe it or not, residents actually go to the market. So it is common place to run into these guys shopping since they are creatures of habit. Of course this guy Straightfacts is going to skew the truth as he is part of the scheme and a beneficiary of what has been happening for years.
Having said that, to answer his question about vacation. Lets look at just one of the clauses that no sound business man would ever allow in a contract:
No employee covered by this Agreement shall be entitled to more
than twelve (12) days of his or her vacation during either the summer period, to wit, June,
July, August and September, or Christmas week or vacation weeks for Warwick school
children; provided, however, that in special circumstances, the Chief of the Fire
Department may, in his or her discretion, grant to any employee, additional vacation time
during the months of June, July, August and September.
22 men had more than 12 days off during that time frame and they increased the time off by using change of shift both before and after the vacation day.
Sick time - Another clause that no business man would enter into:
Sick leave shall be granted at the rate of twenty (20) working days per year accumulative
to one hundred forty (140) working days; provided, however, that additional sick leave
may be granted at the discretion of the Chief of the Department.
These clauses restrict management rights.
In addition - From 7/1/2016 through 5/31/2017, 1,539 changes of shift were awarded.
417 changes of shift were requested for the day before a scheduled 4 days off.
394 changes of shift were requested for the day after a scheduled 4 days off.
46% of changes of shift were adjacent to a change of shift on the next day for the same firefighter.
It's not about stalking, its about analysis and about what the taxpayer can afford. No member of the department will ever agree to changes.
By the way, add to these numbers $1,000,144 for unused sick time payments this year, last year it was $1,092,421. Thats the 50% increase that was given in the last contract the the finance officer said would have a 3 year increase of $182,800.
The first year he was off by $640,000.
There is plenty of room for scrutiny when you study the trends and the numbers. That is what this is about. And lets not forget the guys that call in sick and do shift swapping so they can go to work at other jobs. We have data on that as well.
And by the way, I don't need a hobby. You would be surprised how much time is spent with an airplane, 2 boats, fishing gear and scuba gear.
Please explain the inappropriate content below.
