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Representing the specific interest of volunteer firefighters in Canada… https://t.co/qJikfUUK1W@CdnFireChiefs President and Edmonton Fire Chief Ken Block to become Australia’s first Fire Rescue Commissioner for the State of Victoria. “It wasn’t a lot but it’s what we asked for.”A similar decision was expected at press time for the Toronto Police Service; the numbers, Saunders said, may be favourable to the municipality and will likely drive police-service salary awards across the province.“Which, in turn,” Saunders said, “could have a significant impact on the fire departments.” Even if that happens, Saunders warns, the high cost of compensation for firefighters is forcing some municipalities to review their master fire plans to determine if there is a more cost-effective way to service local needs and circumstances.“So, bluntly, that means that some municipalities are looking at whether or not a composite model would more effectively and from a performance perspective provide appropriate fire-protection services in their communities as opposed to a full-time model. “People expect to have benefits to death; I think it should have been part of our benefit package decades ago.
The benefits firefighters receive far exceed those offered by Social Security, whose maximum benefit today for retirement at the full retirement age of 66 is $31,704 per year. For years, municipalities have complained about the high cost of firefighter salaries and benefits and the arbitration process that awards them. Salary ranges can vary widely depending on many important factors, including education , certifications, additional skills, the number of … “We feel that firefighters spend a major part of their lives protecting the community and putting their lives at risk and I imagine that the average person on the street doesn’t know that firefighters have no benefits after 65.
“By the time you have a captain or a platoon chief’s salary, with the addition of [retention pay] on top of that, and a little bit of overtime, they are often making a total compensation package similar to if not higher than the deputy chief who supervises them,” Saunders said.Municipalities are then obligated to pay higher salaries for deputies and chiefs, whose paycheques become equal to those of senior municipal staff.
There are several benefits to joining the IAFF.However, it’s not just the individual fire fighter who benefits through forming a chartered IAFF Local. “Be careful what you give away.“If a request is not normative and pervasive, just say no.” Further, Saunders said, it’s crucial that fire chiefs and human resources managers who are at the bargaining table find out what is normative in comparable municipalities.“Some of that research means talking to your colleagues in human resources and the provincial fire chiefs associations,” he said.
Thanks Chief Gord Schreiner for sharing your initiatives @comoxfire Great to have you on the air my friend. “If things start to get tight, the only control that we have over the fire department outside of binding arbitration is [to cut] a number of people, a number of facilities,” Woodside said, noting that the arbitration process itself cost the city $255,000.Cutting firefighters and closing stations or taking trucks out of service can be politically explosive, as was the case in Corner Brook, N.L., in 2012 when firefighters were awarded a retroactive 16-per-cent pay raise over four years, immediately followed by layoffs. Search in title
In Ontario, for example, firefighter association are requesting post-65 health benefits for retired firefighters and some municipalities have agreed, figuring if they anted up in one area the associations would back down in another.