Firefighter hours could change if lawsuit fails

Area firefighters will work dramatically different hours if a lawsuit challenging changes in overtime rules for public safety employees is unsuccessful.

The changes, which were part of the November ballot measure increasing the state's minimum wage, eliminated the exception to the 40-hour week for public safety employees such as firefighters and police. Attempts to restore the old rules during this year's session of the Missouri Legislature failed as politics over other minimum-wage issues intruded into the debate.

Cape Girardeau city manager Doug Leslie estimated that if Cape Girardeau were forced to pay overtime to firefighters, it would cost the city about $1 million annually. Since Jan. 1, the city has amassed a bill of about $410,000 due firefighters if the lawsuit fails and the judge orders retroactive overtime pay.

"There are a full range of options that would have to be evaluated if the court case isn't rendered in the cities' favor," Leslie said. "We could not pay that level of overtime. It is just not affordable."

Jackson, with a smaller fire department, would have to pay firefighters about $100,000 a year more if the Missouri Municipal League's lawsuit fails, city administrator Jim Roach estimated. With a July hearing pending in the case, Roach said, the city may act soon to control those costs in anticipation of an adverse ruling.

"If this doesn't get solved one way pretty soon, we are going to have to look pretty hard at putting firefighters on a 40-hour week," Roach said.

Cape Girardeau fire department Capt. Dean Lynn, president of Local 1084 of the International Association of Firefighters, said he believes Cape Girardeau could avoid the additional costs by signing a collective bargaining agreement with the union. Other cities with union contracts believe they are exempt, and Belton, Mo., signed an agreement with its union in January that included pledges from firefighters not to seek back overtime pay.

"For the people in contracts, it is not much of an issue," Lynn said.

The Missouri Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that public employees have collective bargaining rights and that contracts concerning pay and working conditions are binding on the political subdivisions once they are approved.

Firefighters are willing to forgo the overtime mandated by the law to keep their current work hours and pay, Lynn said. "We are not interested in receiving the overtime," he said.

The union does, however, want another issue with the city resolved involving vacation time and sick leave accrual rates. At the end of 2006, the city chose to reduce these rates from 48 hours per month to 32. The move only affects newly hired firefighters and will save the city about $46,000 this year.

Firefighters, who work 10 24-hour shifts per month, work about 800 hours per year more than general employees, Lynn said.

But if the accrual issue can't be solved, firefighters would be willing to sign a contract on the overtime issue alone, he said.

Cape Girardeau has never entered into formal contracts with employee groups, Leslie said, and has been advised by its attorneys that a contract wouldn't change whether it will owe overtime to firefighters. "You can't reach an agreement that supersedes state law," Leslie said.

Firefighters' unusual hours allow more time for families or second jobs.

"Besides the fact that the overtime thing would have a tremendous impact on us budgetwise, to switch those folks to a 40-hour week throws their world into turmoil," Roach said.

The change in state law that was included in the ballot measure eliminated a reference to federal labor laws governing public safety employees. That federal provision allows firefighters to work an average of 56 hours a week and police to work 44 hours a week before triggering overtime pay. When lawmakers took up the issue, a small group of powerful legislators opposed making a change unless another provision triggering cost of living increases was also repealed.

A court ruling against the cities could be fixed by lawmakers next year, but not before major disruptions in firefighters' schedules, Leslie said.

rkeller@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 126