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The fire commissioner denied accusations Tuesday that paramedic rotations are a form of retaliation.
Of the city’s about 200 paramedics, 83 percent were rotated. While 73 percent were offered their first or second location choice, 63 percent received one of the top-three picks, Fire Commissioner Lloyd Ayers said.
Officers ranking lieutenant and above have been on a three-year rotation, but paramedics were thrown in the mix when they won a lawsuit that forced the City to compensate for back overtime pay.
The department switched paramedics to 12-hour shifts three years ago to avoid more overtime. In discussions with the union, the department agreed to give medics a chance to request a shift change from night to day in the future, Ayers said.
“We’re just living up to the fact that we should allow all of our paramedics to rotate and also to move to more desirable companies if they so chose,” he said.
Firefighters union president Bill Gault has accused the moves as revenge from the lawsuit (“Medic swaps,” Jan. 5).
“It’s just not so,” he said. “It’s not so. It’s the fact that we need to change the shifts. Otherwise over the budgetary period we use, we’d be paying millions of dollars in overtime and we just can’t do that.”
And with GPS devices, among other technology to help the medics get to their destinations, response times will not be hindered, he said.
“They’re professionals,” Ayers said. “Their performance is not showing that they have a degrade whenever they move. We never saw that.”
Contact Managing Editor Amanda L. Snyder at asnyder@southphillyreview.com or ext. 117.
Also in this week’s Police Report:
Mysterious double homicide
‘Philly Undercover’
Roughing major
Sharp tactics
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