Agenda - Council - 07/27/1999 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home

CONSIDER PROPOSED POLICY REGARDING FULL-TIME CITY EMPLOYEES SERVING IN TI-I~. FIRE DEPARTMENT Linda Waite Smith, Administrative Services ; Background: During the current search for a Public Works Maintenance Worker, we were confronted with the situation of a member of our Fire Department applying for the position. If he had not received an "offer he couldn't refuse" from his current employer, we would have hired him and had our first regular, full~time employee who is also an on-call fire fighter with our City. Two main issues always surface in this situation. First, there is confusion about how the employee will be compensated. Will the employee be paid regular salary or Fire Fighter stipend if responding to a fire call"during regular work hours? Will he or she have to be p'aid overtime pay for responding to fire calls after regular work hours. The second issue is whether or not City employees can and will be excused from their duties during normal work hours to respond to fire calls. With the addition of a second fire station in the near future, it is highly likely the City will need to deal with these issues. The Fire Chief and Administrative Services Manager are recommending that the City adopt a simple policy that clearly explains how compensation and response time will be handled when we have people serving in two capacities. As far as compensation is concerned, that is governed by the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). FLSA contains an exemption from overtime requirements for employees who volunteer their time to their employers in a capacity that is ~ from their normal job (29CFR553.I03). Several years ago the City of Plymouth had some problems resulting in a big bill for back pay to several Fire Department employees. The letter from the U.S. Department of Labor to the City of Plymouth states clearly that the employees in question must be paid overtime because their regular, paid employment with the City involved the same type of duties as their volunteer jobs responding to fires ,(letter from Karen R. Keesling to Jeanette Sobania, March 3, I991). Although the FLSA uses the word "volunteer," nominal compensation does not negate the designation of volunteer (League of Minnesota Cities Handbook, Seventh Edition, p. 252). I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I