PHOTO: Councilman Gerald “Red” Taylor spoke up for first responders at the council meeting last Tuesday night. (Photo by Tyler Pruett)
By Tyler Pruett, Managing Editor
FORT PAYNE, Ala. — At last night’s regularly scheduled meeting, the council debated the issue of event overtime pay for the police department and fire department.
The issue has been brought up at several council meetings this year. The point of contention is that police officer and firefighters working for the city, who are regularly called in for extra shifts and hours outside of their regular shifts for events, are not being paid overtime due to the city’s personnel policy.
In the meeting, the council passed a measure to allow firefighters to be added to the expanded overtime pay for first responders at events, but sought to do away with natural disaster overtime pay.
At the meeting, Councilman Gerald “Red” Taylor spoke in favor of treating first responders like other city employees, who receive overtime if their hours exceed forty each week.
“I believe we can do away with both these event pay resolutions, and treat them like all the other city employees,” Taylor said in the meeting.
After the meeting, the Southern Torch caught up with Councilman Taylor to get the full story.
“The Fair Labor Standards act says that we have to pay overtime if they work over 129 hours in a three week period. If they work 121 hours in a 3 week period, we can still pay them overtime,” said Taylor.
“We have to pay a fireman overtime if they work over 212 hours in a four week period, but the law mandates that we pay them overtime if they work over that amount of time, but it doesn’t prohibit us from paying them overtime if they work less than that,” Taylor said.
“Our policemen and firemen are being shortchanged because they are not being able to draw the overtime and extra pay whenever they are being called to work extra shifts on their off days,” he added.
“I just feel like all the rest of our city employes are forty hour employees, and the police and fire are not forty hour,” stated Taylor.
“I think anytime a policeman or fireman either one is required to work and take time away from their family, take their free time away from them, they should be compensated for it,” he said.
“I feel like we aren’t doing them right when we have the the recreation department and street department getting paid overtime for working over forty hours, but not our first responders,” Taylor said.
The council also sought to do away with natural disaster overtime pay, with those being approved on a case-by-case basis. It’s important to note, that while the city would initially be responsible for the overtime pay after a natural disaster, FEMA would be reimbursing the city for these wages.
“I’d like to see natural disasters included in it. That’s when we need firemen, police, we need everybody,” Taylor said.
“Ten years down the road when we aren’t there anymore, we may have a natural disaster, and whoever is there will be able to say, we don’t have to pay them overtime because it’s not on the list,” stated Taylor.
“If we have a tornado like went through Rainsville several years ago that’s when we’ll need everyone we can get,” he added.
When asked how the campaign is going, Taylor replied, “I think it’s going good. We’re seeing a lot of people and getting a lot of good response.”
