Volunteer Firefighters

LindaS

How do you handle EEs who are also volunteer firefighters? If they are called while they are working do you simply excuse the absence? Do you require them to make up their time or is it simply time missed?

We are in WI and I cannot find any regulations regarding how to handle this and it has been quite a few years since I have dealt with this situation.

Thanks

stilldazed

We do, we're in Florida, and we excuse their absence. We also pay a stipend to encourage their involvement, and involvement is important our organization in that we are located in a rural part of Florida with no fire station nearby. Many of our volunteers would also respond to a fire within our business, so we want them to respond.

drehil

We have two volunteer firefighters in our organization. We allow them to respond if their departments are covered and we excuse the time. It's very rare that they go at all but we do our best to accommodate them when they do. A couple things to keep an eye out for would be their emotional state when they return to work after a tragic fire/accident and the rest of the staff grilling them for details about the call they were just on. We try to keep things business as usual when they return from a call but that's easier said then done.

ray a

Sometimes I have to enforce policies that I don't agree with. We have had very few volunteer fireman over the years, but officially I tell them they are not excused when there is a fire, they are free to answer any calls they want on their own time, but not company time. Realistically, if there is a significant fire and they are needed, they will get the time off and not be penalized.