Posted by: The Chief Newspaper
Monday, October 17, 2011
The union representing Emergency Medical Services supervisors scored a victory last month with a grievance filed more than two years ago concerning the role and responsibilities of EMS Captains.
Arbitrator Robert T. Snyder sided with EMS Officers Union Local 3621 of District Council 37, finding that EMS Division Captains have been taking on many of the field responsibilities of EMS Deputy Chiefs, but without a commensurate pay rate. These duties exceed the written responsibilities of Division Captains.
Same Job, Lower Pay
“We felt for some time that the Captains were doing the same job as the Deputy Chief,” Local 3621 President Vincent Variale said, adding that he filed the grievance after taking office in June 2009. According to Lieutenant Variale, the Division Captain is in charge of organizing and supervising the operations of an EMS station. But Captains in the field have been supervising EMS workers in the way expected of a Deputy Chief. What it comes down to, according to the union president, is a span-of-control issue and public safety.
According to the Incident Management System in place at the city and state levels, the span of control for EMS is one officer/supervisor per seven individuals. “But in EMS, the span of control is 1-in-20, and many times 1-in-40,” he said, adding that this could certainly worsen as annual incidents increase.
The union isn’t looking to remove Captains from this role, but rather to work with the city to clarify their responsibilities and pay them accordingly.
“I would hope that the city would be able to come to us and try to negotiate further plans to try and keep the Division Captain job alive, for the simple fact of addressing the span-of-control issue, or the lack of span of control that exists in EMS,” Mr. Variale said.
“The Fire Department’s own statistics show that whenever an EMS Captain or Lieutenant is on the scene of a cardiac arrest, the survival rate increases 15 to 23 percent,” he continued, explaining that the supervisor coordinates what’s needed on the scene, “like a conductor in an orchestra.”
‘They Know There’s a Need’
This expansion of responsibility from station duties to division duties has been going on since 2000, but has spread to all boroughs in the last few years. “I think the fact that the department expanded the role of the Captain into the division tells the story right there,” he said. “They see a need for more supervisors out in the field and they needed to expand the role of the Captain to operations in the field. He’s needed out there just like more Lieutenants are needed out there.”
Mr. Snyder ruled that the city must either stop having Captains fulfill the duties of Deputy Chiefs, or begin paying them a comparable salary. Mr. Variale said he hopes the arbitration win will open the door to future negotiations with the city, which had previously refused to negotiate on the issue.
“We would be willing to do the work if they would consider things like civil-service exams and titles for Captains, Deputy Chief, and Division Commander, and would be willing to fix the pay structure.”
He thanked DC 37 attorneys Dena Klein and Steven Sykes for their work on the petition, and said there’s a long road ahead: “When I first took office, I said there were some issues that needed to be addressed—this is the beginning.”