Fire Dept. Cracks
Down On Sick Leave

In a move aimed at discouraging abuse of sick leave, the New Haven Board of Fire Commissioners on Friday approved a new policy that will require firefighters who call in sick three times in a 12-month period — or are out for six or more days — to get a note from their doctor.

Assistant Fire Chief Pat Egan pushed the idea through a divided board. Egan, who was the president of the firefighters union until he was promoted to his current job last fall, said the policy is supposed to help the ​“good guys” in the department who aren’t abusing their sick days.

“They take a hit because somebody beats the crap out of the sick-leave policy,” he said.

The note requirement would be triggered by three incidents of using sick leave, Egan said, even if each one was a single day. Being out a total of six days or more also would require a note.

Jimmy Kottage, president of the International Association of Fire Fighters Local 825 union, said the change is unfair and that it was rushed to a board vote. A firefighter could be out for only three days over the course of a year and need a note, he said.

At issue is the definition of ​“frequent and habitual” users of sick leave. Egan said the current contract didn’t have a definition, and required board approval of a doctor’s note that would be considered acceptable. Until now, he said, if a firefighter was out five consecutive days or longer, the chief could issue a warning or even a suspension. But that has been done in a scattershot fashion.

The new policy, Egan said, lets everyone know what the rules are. Unless a firefighter refused to produce a note, he said, the requirement wouldn’t prompt any disciplinary action, or be noted in a personnel file.

The department racked up 25,000 hours of sick leave last year, Egan said, although he couldn’t say how many of those hours were taken by ​“abusive” firefighters. There are roughly 320 firefighters in New Haven, and they earn about 15 sick days each year, Kottage said.

Egan said that the department’s overtime budget is projected to be $400,000 to $500,000 in the red by the end of the fiscal year, although money wasn’t the main motivation behind the change.

A firefighter might be out for 25 days for completely legitimate reasons, he said. It’s the firefighter who calls in sick on three consecutive Saturday nights who’s abusing the department, he said.

“We need people to come to work,” Egan said.

Kottage called the change ​“a bad policy” that’s ​“being directed at good firefighters who are coming to work every day.”

Firefighters do thousands of medical calls each year, he said, and are exposed to diseases, blood and other circumstances that occasionally make them sick.

“I think it’s premature,” Kottage said. ​“I think the fire commissioners jumped too soon.”

But Egan said the new policy should be a disincentive for firefighters thinking of burning a sick day when they’re not in fact ill. Two contracts ago, Egan said, the city and the union agreed to a clause that forced firefighters who called in sick around a holiday to lose their holiday pay.

That’s led to a change in the department, Egan said. ​“Our sick time around holidays, where we would have 20-odd guys off on July 4, all of a sudden, everybody’s at work,” Egan said.

“The union is not against good policy,” Kottage, pictured, told commissioners. ​“But good policy does not mean you bring it up to the Board of Commissioners on a Tuesday and have it shoved down your throats on Thursday … the union was not even asked to participate in this.”

Egan, who emphasized that he was acting on behalf of Fire Chief Michael Grant, brought the issue to the board at its regular meeting on Tuesday. After commissioners asked for more time, they called a special meeting for Friday.

At Friday’s meeting, commissioners Boise Kimber and Robin Miller-Godwin wanted to punt again, saying there were unresolved questions and that they were reluctant to move forward. Miller-Godwin raised several issues, including whether firefighters might have to pay extra for a doctor’s note to satisfy the department. Charging for notes is becoming common practice, she said.

“Why should I incur an expense when I have not been out for five consecutive days?” she asked, referring to the existing standard in the firefighters’ contract, under which disciplinary action could be triggered by five non-consecutive days of sick leave.

Kimber also bristled at the speed of the process. Egan bluntly insisted that the board take a vote.

“I think this board has got to become a policymaking board, not a rubber stamp,” Kimber objected.

Miller-Godwin and Kimber wanted to wait, while commissioners George Longyear, Wendy Mongillo and Paul Nunez Jr. supported the change.