SWAMPSCOTT — The Swampscott Fire Fighters Union Local 1459 has filed a complaint against the department and the town over an alleged violation of their collective bargaining agreement.
The complaint filed with the Department of Labor Relations (DLR) refers to a period between December and February in which the department reduced the number of firefighters per shift from the contractually required eight to seven.
“(Chief Graham Archer) said that his budget could not sustain the eight through the winter without going short the rest of the year,” said union President Jim Snow. “We dispute that. There was money available at the time and he reacted too quickly.”
Snow explained that at the time, there were several vacancies on the department’s staff due to members on sick leave or going into the academy. The union suggested that the department defer the firefighters’ academy attendance and hire one permanent firefighter as well as provisional firefighters from the civil service list, which Snow said the chief refused.
“We felt that the town had options to minimize the financial impact of overtime without reducing the manning,” Snow said.
Archer said that as chief, he has the prerogative to reduce staffing if necessary, according to the contract. He said that he had tried to negotiate with the union, but was unable to use their suggestions.
“Hiring somebody off the street and giving them a helmet and an ax wasn’t going to be a solution,” Archer said. “In that time frame, we couldn’t have vetted and hired someone, much less trained them.”
In the Select Board meeting held Wednesday night, Town Administrator Sean Fitzgerald said that he had participated in a five-hour hearing with the DLR regarding the complaint.
“We have paid out over the winter months a record amount of overtime,” Fitzgerald said. “Yet we’re facing a complaint about a lost opportunity for wages because we literally could not fill some of these shifts due to the number of staff that weren’t able to respond.”
Fitzgerald said that so far in 2021, the town has paid out $247,000 in overtime wages, $58,000 more than the average over the past three years.
“That’s a significant financial burden for the town,” he said.
In a Facebook post in the private group Swampscott Times, Select Board member David Grishman criticized the union for the complaint.
“Money should be paid to all firefighters, police, everyone for all shifts worked, including overtime shifts. However, this was not the case with this specific grievance,” Grishman wrote. “It seems the union feels entitled to grabbing your tax dollars for shifts not worked.”
The DLR will make a decision on if there are grounds for the complaint within 60 days, Snow said. The union has also filed a separate grievance with the town, which will go to arbitration.
The town voted at the November Town Meeting to exempt its fire and police departments from the civil service system. The town’s three-year union contracts are also up this year and will be renegotiated.