Volunteer Fighter Fighter

Cindy Hanna

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 10-15-02 AT 11:46AM (CST)[/font][p]We recently had a tragic accident involving several vehicles. One of our employees is a volunteer fire fighter in which we had no knowledge of him being a volunteer fire fighter. Our employee was paged to go to the scene of the accident and the employees immidiate supervisor could not let him go because we were very busy. We are a service based company. Do we have a legal obligation to let an employee go if he/she is paged? What is the legal ramifications if any if we do not let that employee go? We do not have anything written in a policy or handbook regarding employee volunteering.

Pork

Cindy, turn to your employee handbook and company policy on community volunteer programs and read what you have published for handling the situation or event. Given that you authorized the individual to be a volunteer community servant, then you are obligated to follow through on your policy. Given your company has no written policy then one would think you can handle it on a case by case basis. Volunteer programs are good for community relations and is wise to be involved with the community. Given no value to your company to have employees involved with the community, you can do whatever your general manager or board of directors want to do. Now the down side of participation; given some tragic death happens in the event and the lack of your ee to be on the scene with his/her special training to save the life of the injured party, you can bet the "attorney dawgs" are going to be quick on the trail of discovery and why wasn't your ee released to go to this scene? "Because your GM did not want to release him, a personal decision to show his/her personal power to control the actions of the ee", or was there a real serious business event ongoing which would make a reasonable jury person conclude your GM had a reasonable need for the ee to be at work rather than at the scene!!! At a minimum, I would quietly, after the fact, have a discussion for guidance and get rid of conflicting policy and current GM direction on volunteer program or create one so that everyone knows what is expected and under what circumstances. Good luck, I hope this helps, I have been there and done that and we had to answer to the attorneys discovery as to what was the business necessity to retain the person on the job rather than let the individual go to the scene for volunteer work? We answered and was never called for our story in court, we assumed we did not help there case. Needless to say, we immediately put our heads together and came up with new procedures and guidance for the employees and the new GM to follow. I have never had it come up again in the last 14 years of my HR service, but it was a significant "eye opener event" for me in my HR career.

Cindy Hanna

Thank you for your input. Sorry it took me so long to respond I was gone. What if the company did not know a employee is a volunteer? I do know that the employee was very up-set.

Thank you

Down_the_Middle

Cindy:
This creates the perfect opportunity for the org to develop such a policy and instruct employees that your ability to honor their requests is dependent on knowing about their community involvement. I wouldn't beat up on yourself for what you now know after the fact. A simple explanation to the fire fighter should suffice and your willingness to try and accommodate him next time should soothe his battered feelings. Ya can't deal with what you don't know about!!!!

AnneHa

Cindy,

In Ohio there are some restrictions on employers regarding treatment of volunteer emergency personnel and tardiness or absence from work in event of an emergency situation. You may want to check state law before formulating any policy.

Cindy Hanna

Thank you for your advice. I did talked to the employee and told him that we will come up with a policy regarding this matter. He is still up-set because he missed an opportunity to use his skills at the scene of an accident. But he does understand.

Pork

If the company does not know then how could the company respond, appropriately? The employee needs to be told whether or not his presents is required as 1st or 2nd priority for the company and if he/she can't live with that then he/she has a choice to look elsewhere for full-time employment. Pork

Rockie

I agree with Pork on this one. Number 1 - the employee has the duty to divulge that he or she is a volunteer with any organization, especially if it may affect employment. Number 2 - An employee can't expect just to be able to walk off the job when needed for volunteer work. With any volunteer work, I would think you would have to be "available" to volunteer. This is not like military leave where you are required to go if called and even they give notice.

I think the company certainly acted appropriately when they would not let him leave due to work responsiblities. I applaud his community spirit, but he can't have it both ways.

WOCO Frank

I grew up in a family of volunteer fire fighters... my step-father was the department chief for many years. None of us would have dreamed of taking on such a position without advising our employer. In my case, it was always something mentioned at the earliest opportunity - during interviews, etc. As I got more "professional", it went on the resume. My point is, no volunteer firefighter I've ever worked with would have withheld this from their employer, and I think you need to let this gentleman know he has no one to blame for this situation but himself.

Cindy Hanna

Thank you so much for your input. WOCO Frank I agree with you, that it is the employee's responsibility to let us know about being a volunteer fire fighter. I really appreciate every ones professional advice.

This forum is great.