I appreciate Chief Rubin's admission that he "misspoke" on the issue of the Compensation 1 and 2 article regarding tour of duty compensation during the Judiciary hearing on February 12th. The local and its membership will also accept that this error was not intentional and was impart caused by a staff unfamiliar with a Comp 1 and 2 agreement that is more than three years old.
However, there appears to be continued confusion demonstrated by the agency regarding the Rosenbaum EMS Task-force Recommendation and should be corrected. As stated in a previous correspondence Recommendation 1 (d) states..."All employees shall have the same BASIC pay and benefits. The City Administrator shall develop a plan, no later than March 31, 2008, to transition to pay and benefits parity between current single-role medical providers and dual-role providers." This recommendation is quite clear and simple so I will attempt to demonstrate the same clarity.
The term "Basic" can best be defined by reviewing the District of Columbia Salary Schedule for Comp Unit 1 and 2 as well as the Fire Service pay schedule. This defines an employee's yearly "take home" pay/salary and in the event of retirement (with the exception of the post October 1987 employee), the amount that an employee's percentage of retirement will be based upon. It will not include overtime as defined by the Fair Labor Standard Act (FLSA) or make unfair assessments based upon incorrect Grade and Step comparisons or median pay schemes, but simply what an employee earns yearly. However, the chief attempts to play the numbers game and by a slight of hand manipulate the figures while conveniently neglecting to mention in his assessment that in addition to what is negotiated by his fire suppression brethren, is a longevity component that increases their yearly salaries starting in the fifteenth year by 5% and topping out at 20% at 30 years of service. This is not overtime, this is longevity pay that is it factored into their base pay. This increase will also be factored into their retirement percentage unlike the EMS civilian employee hired before 1987 (Civil Service) or the EMS employee (post 1987) that currently takes part in the Defined Contribution Plan, the retirement plan that many of the staff members employed by the council are part of.
An in-depth comparison of the base pay of civilian EMS providers and firefighters can be viewed in the attachment below. Unlike the chiefs figures, overtime is not included because it is not factored in the employees base pay or retirement percentage assessment. However, the firefighter LONGEVITY PAY is included in their retirement assessment starting at year 15 @ 5%, year 20 @ 10%, year 25 @ 15% and year 30 @ 20%. Again, I would emphasize that these increases (LONGEVITY PAY) are in addition to any negotiated increases that firefighter may receive.
How the District of Columbia demonstrates its appreciation to the many EMS civilian providers following years of dedicated service, should not be to deny them the opportunity to care for themselves and their families, but through comparable/competitive pay and a humane retirement and benefits and not through the slight of hand demonstrated by a Fire Department's leadership that continues to ignore the personal sacrifices by these individuals.
Kenneth Lyons, PresidentAFGE Local 3721