Medic swaps

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(This article has been updated with comments from the fire department, which were received after press time.)

The International Association of Fire Fighters – Local 22 is concerned about what its members deem as unnecessary paramedic reassignments.

“They’re planning to transfer every one of them,” union president Bill Gault said of the fire department’s paramedics being relocated starting Jan. 8 and 9.

Gault received 150 memos from paramedics requesting to stay at their location while 17 requested a change from night to day shift. The mass transfer was announced three months ago.

“These are paramedics,” Gault said. “They save lives for a living. They should be given some consideration.”

Employees were informed of their reassignments Nov. 23, Executive Chief Richard Davison said via e-mail. The rotations are not expected to change the number of paramedics assigned to a given location.

"Factors were based on choices of medics who wanted to transfer from night to day and then medics who wanted to transfer from day to night," he said.

As employees learn their new communities, arriving to their destinations in a timely fashion will not be done as efficiently, a South Philly firefighter who did not wish to be named for fear of retribution, said.

“What you’re going to have down here is longer response times,” he said. “The people in South Philly need to know the next step they need to take to protect their loved ones because [paramedics are] not going to be there.”

Switching the workers is part two of scheduled changes resulting from a lawsuit the medics won a few years ago, Gault said.

In July 2003, paramedics filed a suit demanding overtime pay for weeks when they worked more than 40 hours. At that time, the City classified paramedics in the same vein as firefighters, who are deemed exempt from mandatory overtime pay, according to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Fair Labor Standards Act.

The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania ruled in favor of the City in ’06, according to court records. The paramedics appealed and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit overturned the decision noting that the court erred since paramedics are not responsible for “fire protection activities” in ’07. The findings prompted the City to file a petition with the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board seeking to remove the paramedics from the union in ’09. The board sided with the City, but the union is awaiting a ruling on an appeal.

“Immediately after [the paramedics won the lawsuit, the City] changed their shifts to 12-hour shifts,” Gault said. “They were working 10-hour days and 14-hour nights like fireman and they worked 8 [a.m.] to 8 [p.m.] or 8 [p.m.] to 8 [a.m. after the switch]. Now step two seems to be taking them all out of their spots, which they’re accustomed to. … We see it as complete retaliation and vindictiveness.”

Davison denies that the changes are a form revenge or will have any impact on response times.

"This is not a retaliation, merely a method to ensure equal access to all shifts and the most desirable assignments," he said.  SPR

Contact Managing Editor Amanda L. Snyder at asnyder@southphillyreview.com or ext. 117.

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