The Plymouth Common Council passed on 2nd reading an ordinance to amend the 2016 Salary Ordinance as it pertains to the fire department work schedule.
Monday night, Fire Chief Rod Miller said he had been approached by some of his employees to consider a change from the one day on, two day off rotation. Miller said he initially wasn’t interested but this fall they asked him to consider again and he asked for a four month schedule to study the proposed change.
The Council was told the majority of full-timers, fire and paramedics, are in favor of changing from the one day on and two days off schedule to a 24 hours on, 24 hours off, 24 hours on, 24 hours off, 24 hours on and then 4 days off. Chief Miller said it would be the same number of work days and hours in the 28 day rotation.
Marsha Wainscott, long time paramedic spoke in opposition to the change. She said she feels there should be criteria in place to make a change of this magnitude and that 100% of the employees should be in agreement. She said this is a life change for the employee and their family and could even affect their part time jobs.
Wainscott noted that there is a 7 to 1 ratio of EMS calls to fire calls and working 24 on, 24 off, 24 on, 24 off, 24 on and then 4 days off would have the likely-hood of causing employees to be more tired and worn out leading to less judgment when necessary.
The ordinance amendment passed on second reading with councilmen Mike Delp and Shawn Grobe voting against the amendment.
The council will hear third reading of the ordinance amendment in two weeks.
