Paying our Volunteer Fire Fighters for calls?
HRCalico
582 Posts
I know there was a post about this a while back but I've been searching for a while and am not able to find it, so I'm reposting. Anybody who can direct me to the other post, please feel free to do so!
We have two members of the local volunteer fire dept. on our staff. One is exempt, the other is not. Currently, we require the non-exempt employee to punch out when he goes on a call, but when the exempt employee switched from non-exempt, he stopped punching out. (Not because we told him to, either, as far as I know.)
The non-exempt approached me last week and said that there are other people on the FD (at other employers) that don't have to punch out and therefore get paid for that time. I explained work comp and blah blah blah - the bottom line is that he realizes he chooses to be on the FD, but he would like us to provide him with some compensation to make up for the time he misses.
I asked for some rough numbers and they probably miss 2 to 3.5 hours per week. Not substantial (considering both are working probably 50 hours per week) but it certainly adds up. Something I'm considering proposing to the higher-ups is giving them a bonus for their "civic involvement", especially since they can't control when they are doing their civic duty.
Please weigh in on how your company handles this, if you have such volunteers on staff. Another question is that since the exempt employee isn't losing any pay, should he also get a bonus? What is "fair"? (remember that word is defined as me first and I get the biggest and best part!!) He's also contributing the time, and if it was my house or our workplace on fire, or my family in an accident, I would want him to be there.
Thanks for any input!
We have two members of the local volunteer fire dept. on our staff. One is exempt, the other is not. Currently, we require the non-exempt employee to punch out when he goes on a call, but when the exempt employee switched from non-exempt, he stopped punching out. (Not because we told him to, either, as far as I know.)
The non-exempt approached me last week and said that there are other people on the FD (at other employers) that don't have to punch out and therefore get paid for that time. I explained work comp and blah blah blah - the bottom line is that he realizes he chooses to be on the FD, but he would like us to provide him with some compensation to make up for the time he misses.
I asked for some rough numbers and they probably miss 2 to 3.5 hours per week. Not substantial (considering both are working probably 50 hours per week) but it certainly adds up. Something I'm considering proposing to the higher-ups is giving them a bonus for their "civic involvement", especially since they can't control when they are doing their civic duty.
Please weigh in on how your company handles this, if you have such volunteers on staff. Another question is that since the exempt employee isn't losing any pay, should he also get a bonus? What is "fair"? (remember that word is defined as me first and I get the biggest and best part!!) He's also contributing the time, and if it was my house or our workplace on fire, or my family in an accident, I would want him to be there.
Thanks for any input!
Comments
I read up a little on the subject and was really suprised by what I found.
Volunteers comprise 73 percent of the 1,096,000 firefighters in the U.S.
Only 6.6 percent of the 30,540 U.S. fire departments have no volunteers on their roster.
The number of volunteer firefighters in the U.S. declined more than 10 percent from 1983 to 2003, from 897,750 to 800,050.
Its my understanding that volunteer firefighters who are injured on a call are covered by the states w/c insurance.
Paying volunteer firefighters per call is an increasing practice apparently.
Your idea of a bonus for volunteers is probably the best way to handle it. Call it a "first responder" bonus which recognizes that this group of volunteers cannot always control the time when they have to serve.
As you said, it might be your house or more importantly, your family that they are saving.