Borough officials argue the firefighters are volunteers, not
employees, and should not be able to unionize. Both sides make their case Jan.
9 in Harrisburg.
Firefighters in Emmaus are at the beginning stages of trying
to unionize.
The borough, meanwhile, believes firefighters are
volunteers—not borough employees—and thus should not be allowed to unionize.
Both sides will have a chance to present their arguments at
a Jan. 9 hearing before the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board in Harrisburg.
Lindsay Bracale, a press aide with the state Department of
Labor & Industry, confirmed the date of the labor board hearing. It will
begin at 10 a.m. in hearing room 3 in the North Office Building in the state
capital.
A statewide group called the Pennsylvania Fire Fighters
Association, which represents paid firefighters in Allentown, Bethlehem and
Easton among other municipalities, filed a petition Oct. 24 with the labor
board, requesting permission to represent 27 Emmaus firefighters in collective
bargaining with the borough.
In the petition, the association says it is seeking to
represent "all full-time and regular part-time firefighters employed in
the fire department, including deputy chief."
The association's petition does not cover "office
clericals, guards and supervisors."
The petition includes the name of association president Art
Martynuska and was submitted by Stephen C. Richman, an attorney with offices in
center city Philadelphia, at 121 N. Cedar Crest Blvd. in South Whitehall, and
in Haddonfield, N.J., and New York City.
Martynuska could not be reached for comment. Patch sent an
email to Richman, who did not respond in time for this posting.
In Emmaus:
—The borough already pays some salaries and benefits to fire
department personnel. It also provides stipends to encourage volunteer
participation. According to 2011 figures provided by the borough, Emmaus paid
$423,411 for fire operations, plus $321,581 in salaries and benefits for a
total contribution of $744,992. That came to 8.5 percent of the $8.68 million
general fund budget.
—Borough council has introduced a proposed ordinance that
would apply to fire department operations.
—The borough gets state aid for fire department operations
in the form of a "foreign fire" tax. The word "foreign"
refers to out-of-state companies that provide insurance to in-state properties.
—The borough website says of fire operations: "The Fire
Department’s staff is comprised of paid on-call volunteers who respond, on
average, [to] 375-400 calls per year. Calls include fire protection,
rescue/extrication and HAZMAT response, and are dispatched via Lehigh County’s
911 Communications Center." The website also says borough fire chief James
Reiss, "a 31-year department veteran, ... oversees 42 volunteer
firefighting professionals, comprised of duty crews, standby drivers and crews
available 24/7, 365 days a year.
—The fire fighters association, according to its website,
represents more than 10,000 paid professional firefighters in Pennsylvania. It
also represents EMTs and paramedics. The association is a member of the
International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF).
Patch posed questions to Emmaus borough manager Shane Pepe
on the issue:
Q. What is the borough's position regarding the unionizing
of firefighters? Is there one issue that stands out?
A. The Borough's position is that the firefighters in the
Borough are meant to be volunteers. They
apparently feel that they are employees.
One of the issues that stands out is the way that the
firefighters are paid. Their position is that they are paid through payroll and
therefore should be considered employees. The Borough's position has
historically been that they receive their pay stipends through the payroll
system and they receive W-2 forms to make life for the firefighter easier, so
they don't have to pay taxes on a 1099 form at the end of the year. It also helps the firefighter with items such
as withholdings for child support, etc.
There are other issues that stand out, however, this is an
issue that will be decided by the Labor Relations Board.
Q. Can you confirm the amount that firefighters receive in
the borough's annual budget? And how much of that is for stipends? Also, why
did the stipends begin and what about the apparent effort to end the stipends?
A. $519,366 is their 2014 budget.... $182,000 is for
stipends.
The stipend began several decades ago. The Borough never
stated that we were eliminating the stipends.
Borough Council greatly reduced the amount we were paying in last year's
budget, just like we cut several positions in the Ambulance Department, Police
Department, and Public Works Department.
When they were making budget cuts, they made the cuts to this department
as well.
Part of the reason was because it was legal counsel's
opinion that the way the department stipend was being paid did not meet Fair
Labor Standard Act requirements. It had
been this way since the 1980s apparently.
The Borough Council felt that we should do things the legal and correct
way, which prompted the beginning of the construction of the ordinance.
Q. What prompted the proposed borough ordinance that would
apply to firefighters? How are firefighters classified under the proposed
ordinance?
A. (Along with the above), there were several areas where
Borough Council needed to clean up the current Borough ordinances for the fire
department. The Borough has always held
the position that we have a volunteer fire department, which should be held as
a separate entity from the Borough Government.
This is how the law works.
The only professionally paid fire departments in the Lehigh
Valley are Easton, Allentown, and Bethlehem City Fire Departments. Every other department is considered a volunteer
department.
Many of the departments pay stipends to offset costs for the
fire departments and provide for some type of incentive for the volunteers, as
there is a great amount of training and work that goes into being a
firefighter. Council has always
recognized this, as it's not as simple as just picking up a hose and spraying
water at a fire. Council felt that
paying a stipend and continuing to pay a stipend is beneficial to the entire
community, however, there was never an intention that the firefighters would be
employees.
Council has worked with the leadership team of the Fire
Department throughout the entire process.
Council was open throughout the process and did everything they possibly
could to make sure that the fire department's voice was heard and addressed
every single concern legally possible that was voiced by the fire department.
The ordinance was formed so that there was very little impact on firefighters.
They would still receive stipends and everything else they have ever had. The
changes were procedural and structural in terms of how the department operated
overall and better defined the department in its relationship with the
Borough.
The ordinance was written to be in line with the vast
majority of every other volunteer fire department in Pennsylvania. The ordinance included free accounting
services by the Borough if the department chose. It included almost every request by the fire
department as well. We spent
approximately 9 months working on this ordinance with the department.
Q. What is the Emmaus Firemen's Relief Association and how
much does it get each year?
A. The Emmaus Firemen's Relief Association is an
organization created that consists of volunteers. Each year, the Borough receives approximately
$80,000 in Foreign Firefighter Tax State Aid from the Commonwealth of
Pennsylvania. Because it is our position
that the Emmaus Fire Department is a volunteer fire department, we give the
money to the Firemen's Relief Association every year. They, in turn, do with it as they
please.
There are guidelines and rules that they must follow under
the state laws, however, the money is usually spent on equipment for
firefighters, additional vehicles, etc.
If the department were treated as a paid fire department, the Borough
would keep the money and use it for the fire department under the same
guidelines, only we would be making the decisions with the money rather than
the Volunteer Relief Association.
