MORGANTOWN — Morgantown’s response after the city’s firefighters accused city manager Kim Haws of lowering their pay in retaliation for not accepting a lawsuit settlement and unanimously voting no-confidence in him as a union has only reinforced the belief in Haws’ inability “to run the city for the benefit of its citizens.”
That’s according to a press release by Teresa Toriseva, the attorney representing Morgantown’s firefighter union, the International Association of Firefighters Local 313.
The issue at hand is over shift differential pay — a small enhancement to hourly pay when working an afternoon or midnight shift. Haws is accused of canceling the shift differential for firefighters after they refused a settlement offer for about half of what firefighters say they are owed in back pay, as part of an on-going lawsuit over improper holiday compensation.
According to the city shift differential rules: “employees who begin their shift between 1 p.m. and 8 p.m. will receive an extra $0.63 per hour; and employees who begin their shift between 8 p.m. and 3 a.m. will receive an extra $1.02 per hour. In addition to the fire department, Morgantown Communications Director Andrew Stacy said the city’s police, public works and parking authority employees also have the opportunity to take advantage of the shift differential pay.
Firefighters start their shift at 8 a.m. and state law allows them to decide how long their shifts are. “Although it was not allowed by the personnel rules, some firefighters were claiming the afternoon shift differential for 8 hours of their shift as well as the night shift differential for another 8 hours of their shift,” the city stated.
The city also stated: ” If firefighters – or other employees – were claiming shift differential simply because they worked during the hours of 1 p.m.- 8 p.m., or 8 p.m.- 3 a.m., that was not permitted by the rules, and it should not have been paid.” Toriseva said that claim is “so misleading that it is untrue.”
Toriseva said by the city’s logic, it appears that shift differential only applies if a shift begins during the shift differential period — then it would follow that if firefighters voted to start their shift at 8 p.m., the midnight differential would apply for the entirety of the shift.
Stacy said the firefighters could vote by a majority to work 8-hour shifts, which would allow for some shifts to take advantage of the increased pay. However, a change in the time of when 24-hour shifts start would have to be decided by city administration — not firefighters.
“They’re just wrong,” Toriseva said. “We would take the exact opposite position. The membership has the right to choose what time they come on duty, but they are required to work 24-hour shifts.”
Toriseva said the firefighters’ pay hasn’t been just been adjusted to comply with rules, but canceled only for firefighters no matter what time their shift begins. So while changing a shift’s starting time could work and is an option, the fundamental issue is the city’s retaliation. And it could simply find another way to retaliate.
Toriseva said she was shocked by the city’s response. “I expected the city to have an opposing view but did not expect the city’s bizarre accusation that the firefighters were somehow at fault for filling out timesheets exactly as they were trained to do by the city human resources officials. This is further evidence of retaliation.”
Stacy said after the notice about proper use and authorization of shift differential pay was sent out, all firefighters correctly reported their shifts without the differential. No training was required after the notice, and no one has asked for assistance with their timesheet after the change.
A probationary firefighter makes about $46,049 a year, including base pay, hazardous duty pay and scheduled overtime, Stacy said. Unscheduled overtime — affected by several factors such as being called out — can increase that.
Toriseva said Morgantown’s firefighters work 24 hours shifts for 56 hours per week, and 112 hours per pay period. A 24-hour-shift professional firefighter works 40% more hours that a 40-hour-per-week employee or 832 hours more per year, she said.
While this is a union dispute over pay issues, there has been no discussion of a strike. To start, state law does not allow firefighters to strike. Beyond that though, Toriseva said Morgantown’s firefighters are “duty driven men and women that will do their job no matter what. Even as the city is cutting their paycheck by $2,000 a year.”
The coming payday will be the first without the shift differential pay.
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