The Board of Selectmen approved seven requests made by Fire Chief Richard Anderson tonight, including several based on the town employee handbook.
Anderson said questions arose from the three full-time fire department EMS employees – who will soon be joined by a fourth – because the handbook assumes an employee works an eight-hour day.
“It is based on an eight-hour day, not a 12-hour shift,” said Anderson, whose requests included those revolving around accrued sick and vacation time.
Another request was to eliminate the words “at will” in their employee agreement. The employees also asked for an increase in the uniform allotment. He said the current agreement is based on volunteer firefighters and EMTS and the full-time employees need more uniforms because they work more hours.
“They came up with $400 a year, but in talking with my peers, that’s a low number,” said Anderson.
Town Administrative Officer Karl Stinehart noted that the funds Anderson requested Monday night were already in his budget.
“You have the money to do this within your budget, you’re just looking for approval,” Stinehart said.
Anderson confirmed the funds are there.
Another request had to do with overtime for the full-time employees.
Anderson said that while it would be a rare occurrence, he could need to use a full-time employee for overtime at night if he did not have enough volunteer coverage. How it works now is the full-time employee works at the station and when a call comes in, he or she must wait for the second on-call volunteer to meet him at the station. Anderson proposed having the full-time employee and volunteer on-call in their own home.
“We would pay them for two hours to cover a six-hour shift,” said Anderson.
He added that right now volunteers are paid $2 an hour from 6 p.m. – 12 a.m. to be on-call, and $4 an hour to be on-call from 12-6 a.m., with additional pay for responding to a call.
Selectman Russell Fox said the measure was a “safeguard” and supported the request.
Fox and Pinell unanimously approved all seven requests while Selectwoman Tracy Cesan recused herself from the discussion and vote because she is a Fire Department employee.
