Las Vegan's are mad would u be?

http://www.lvrj.com/news/one-third-of-county-firefighters-took-excessive-sick-leave-115062854.html

Seems the firefighters have been taking advantage of a very lucrative contract. $180,0000 average salary and benefits per year. 288 hours of sick time per year. And yet that is not enough. Plus their unused sick time goes toward their pensions.

288 hours sick leave a year? Man thats alot to offer- now they may get offered that much but it dont mean they get to use it all up every year and not get in trouble or fired for calling out- alot of that may be in case they get hurt or a serious illness or something- just because its available does nto mean the gov let them use it all and say its ok to do so.

I get 96 hours of sick leave a year- so they are getting pretty generous terms. However we are allowed to use our sick leave for personal days off up to 4 days a year (get to use 4 days of sick leave as if it was annual leave)- but for them to accru sick leave at a rate of 5.5 hours a week is unreal.

Up until now they have been able to use it and abuse it. What they do is the work with a buddy where one guy calls in sick then the buddy works his shift for him at overtime, and vise versa. That way they collect the sick time and the overtime both. Many of them are getting up to 40k a year in overtime pay. This is in their union contract so not much could be done about it.

Quote: thlf

Up until now they have been able to use it and abuse it.

Obviously the abuse is a problem that should be corrected as harshly as possible. But firefighting is a bit of an exception to most rules. For example, with firefighters working 24 hour shifts, 288 hours of sick time to a firefighter is 12 shifts of sick time per year. Malaru's 96 hours of sick time is also 12 shifts of sick time per year. Additionally, if the $180,000 really includes wages and benefits (including overtime), that doesn't seem too terribly out of line. Consider even just the healthcare, AD&D, and disability insurance premium differences between Firefighters and SEIU members.

I understand what u r saying. I like many other people see it as wages and miss the benefits part, and also see it as 7 weeks of sick pay per year which is what it would be for me. Then we over react. There are 151 comments on that story today already and typically there are only a dozen or so on most stories. Of the 151 I have only seen a handful of them supporting the firefighters.

Then there's the issue of the relative effect of actual sickness. I could care less if the guy at the County Clerk's office has the flu and shows up for work anyway, but I'd rather not have my firefighters weakened and distracted while on the job.

Even cities that file for bankruptcy are too terrified to actually cut police and fire salaries and pensions... they only talk about it. Never do it. Cops, firemen, nurses, schoolteachers, librarians... the burden will surely sink some more cities in California. San Diego perhaps???

Quote: rdw4potus

Obviously the abuse is a problem that should be corrected as harshly as possible. But firefighting is a bit of an exception to most rules. For example, with firefighters working 24 hour shifts, 288 hours of sick time to a firefighter is 12 shifts of sick time per year. Malaru's 96 hours of sick time is also 12 shifts of sick time per year. Additionally, if the $180,000 really includes wages and benefits (including overtime), that doesn't seem too terribly out of line. Consider even just the healthcare, AD&D, and disability insurance premium differences between Firefighters and SEIU members.

Why are you comparing shifts and not hours? Your post seems to suggest that firefighters work three times as long as other folks so they need three times the sick leave. That isn't right. Yes, a given shift is longer, but they work fewer shifts. The odds of a sickness, which lets say lasts 3-4 days when you're sick enough to not work, touching multiple work days is a lot lower. Malaru gets sick in a hypothetical and misses Mon-Web of work, costing him 24 sick hours. Firefighter X gets sick on Mon, missed Monday when he's scheduled, but is then off Tues and Wed. Same 24 hours of sick time.

Second, $180,000 is really grossly overpaid for a job you can learn in what, a few years MAX, and where you sit around most of the time anyways. If they make $180,000 it's because of a combination of government work, unions, overly generous benefit packages, and (most of all) the sacred cow status of police, teachers, and firefights. And yes, there is of course a "dangerous work, irregular hours, physical demands" argument to be made, but that doesn't allow for the firefighters to be making DOUBLE what a soldier assigned overseas makes.