Copyright 2006 P.G. Publishing Co.
By RICH LORD
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Pennsylvania)
Daniel Yakich knows the city of Pittsburgh has hired him to put out fires and save lives. He’s recently learned that the city also expects him to help extinguish an inferno of overtime spending and perhaps save the city budget.
Mr. Yakich, 23, of Sheraden, graduated first in his firefighting class and received his badge Friday. He’ll start work Wednesday at the Deutschtown station, earning $32,733, plus overtime. Maybe lots of overtime.
He and 55 other recruits join a bureau that was so understaffed last year that it had to spend $12 million on overtime and other premium pay to keep stations manned. That boosted 63 firefighters’ pay beyond the $100,000 mark, causing rising stress and budget woes.
Last year, the city spent $21.2 million on premium pay, which is mostly overtime, but also includes longevity bonuses and extra pay for late shifts. That represents 5 cents out of every dollar the city spent.
Staffing using rampant overtime “is a poor management tool that has to be addressed,” said new Mayor Bob O’Connor last week. “You don’t want to do that long-term. ... I’d rather have two Pittsburghers making $50,000 than one making $100,000.”
The city budget says the mayor is supposed to be the highest-paid employee, at around $95,000. But last year, thanks to overtime in the fire, emergency medical services and police bureaus, Mayor Tom Murphy was the 143rd-highest paid city worker.
Tops was EMS Crew Chief Jerome R. Wasek, at $145,006, according to city spending records. Like other top-earners, he could not be reached for comment, not responding to a note left at his Brookline home.
Union heads say some members live to work. Others resent the mandatory overtime that firefighters and paramedics face.
“There’s a tremendous amount of burnout,” said International Association of Fire Fighters Local 1 President Joe King. He said his members like the pay, but find themselves asking, “How many days was I away from my family? How many special occasions did I miss?”
Firefighters work 24-hour shifts, and are supposed to have 72 hours off between those shifts. When there aren’t enough firefighters scheduled, the bureau calls some back for 12-hour shifts that pay $284.
Last year and into this year, callbacks were rampant because mass retirements took the bureau down to 500 firefighters. It takes 723 to staff the city’s fire stations at the level required by its labor contract, without callbacks.
Fire Chief Michael Huss said firefighters have sometimes had to work 36 hours at a stretch.
The bureau answers 240 to 300 fire calls a year, and responds to nearly 30,000 medical emergencies, hazardous materials incidents, false alarms, inspections and other events. Firefighters also must undergo training and maintain equipment.
The situation is nearly as acute in the EMS Bureau. The city’s 162 paramedics handle around 56,000 service calls a year, including more than 20,000 top-priority medical emergencies.
The EMS bureau is fully staffed but still spent $2.9 million on premium pay last year, primarily in overtime. It’s not clear how that can be reduced. EMS Chief Robert McCaughan did not comment.
Police premium pay approached $5.2 million last year. Fraternal Order of Police President Michael Havens said overtime in that bureau comes mostly from arrests late in a shift, and from homicides.
The top-earning police officer, Detective George T. Trosky, made $116,843 last year. More than half was premium pay.
In January, the police union sued the city, saying that overtime has been miscalculated. Mr. Havens said the lawsuit has been settled, though details are being negotiated. He said police will receive “a few million dollars” in back pay and rates for some shifts will be calculated differently.
“A rough estimate is that there will be an increase of about $600,000 a year” in premium pay as a result of the settlement, said city Solicitor Susan Malie. She said it could be less if better scheduling reduces overtime.
There are financial and human costs to long days, said James Craft, a professor of business specializing in human resources at the University of Pittsburgh’s Katz Graduate School of Business.
“Long, long hours can lead to inefficient and even deficient performance by employees, because of ennui, tiredness, or just thinking about other things,” said Mr. Craft. “There are serious implications in regard to physical and mental impact.”
Mr. Craft listed fatigue, anxiety, depression, digestive problems and increased accidents as the risks of overwork. The Japanese, he said, have a word — karoshi — which means “death by work.”
Chief Huss said his firefighters aren’t approaching karoshi. “We haven’t experienced any problems -- yet,” he said.
Nonetheless, he wants to train 160 more recruits this year and early next, with a class of 40 starting Feb. 6, in an effort to approach full staffing.
“It’s wonderful to see these young, educated, physically fit recruits graduate,” he said of the first new firefighters in six years.
Told he’s entering a bureau still understaffed and facing long hours, recruit Mr. Yakich was unfazed. “I feel good about it,” he said. “It’ll be a challenge, but most of our guys are well-trained and motivated to get out there.”