By Aisha Sultan
St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Missouri)
Copyright 2007 St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
ST. LOUIS, Mo. — This week, fire and police departments, along with their mayors and local boards throughout the state, will start scrambling.
Many face scheduling nightmares, busted budgets and possible cuts in service since the Legislature failed to address an oversight in the state’s new minimum wage law. The law, approved by more than 75 percent of voters last November, raised the state’s minimum wage to $6.50 an hour - but omitted language from previous laws that exempted fire and police agencies from having to pay overtime to employees who work more than 40 hours a week.
To those who work and run the services that operate 24/7, fixing the oversight in the new law was a “no-brainer,” said Chief Greg Brown, of the Eureka Fire Protection District. In fact, most departments just kept a running tally of what their overtime payouts would potentially be under the new law over the past four months, for example, $441,000 in St. Louis and $200,000 so far for Central County Fire and Rescue in St. Charles County. Most departments face added overtime costs of between 10 percent to 15 percent of their current annual budgets.
Several agencies filed suit in Cole County challenging the state and Labor Department’s interpretation of the law, but many figured that state legislators would quickly amend the law to restore the federal exemption.
The fix, it turned out, wasn’t so easy.
Rep. Scott Muschany, R-Frontenac, said there were others who would suffer unintended consequences from the law - business interests, who say the inflation adjustment in the new law would hurt the state’s ability to attract and keep industry, and restaurateurs who wanted the increase cut for employees who get tips. When those changes were added, it failed to get enough support. And the Republican leadership maintained that the fix had to be all or nothing.
All weekend, local officials stewed about the outcome.
Florissant Mayor Robert Lowery said, “We think they played politics of the worst kind. It will have an impact on every service, in some fashion, in the city of Florissant.”
Chief Russ Mason of Central County Fire and Rescue said, “The Legislature failed in its duty to protect the public.” Mason, vice president of the Missouri Association of Fire Chiefs, worries about departments having fewer firefighters on the trucks, fewer trucks available for emergencies, less equipment and longer response times.
“It’s just got a huge ripple effect, and it could have been very simply taken care of.”
Creve Coeur fire Chief William Brandes said the nature of the job required flexibility in scheduling shifts. “What if the fires in Georgia and Florida were happening in Missouri?” he asked.
It may seem odd for workers to turn down a pay raise, but the state’s firefighters, police officers and paramedics largely said, “No, thanks” to the overtime. Many said they realized the potential trade-offs, including lower base pay and less flexibility in scheduling. Until now, labor and management had worked together to solve the problem.
Some agencies, such as Rock Community Fire Protection District in Jefferson County, already agreed to roll back the hourly rate they pay employees to make up the difference. But that will affect workers’ disability insurance claims, should they get injured, and their pension benefits.
Firefighters typically work two or three 24-hour shifts a week and usually about 53 to 56 hours a week. Police officers often work 12-hour shifts. It’s more cost-effective and efficient for the departments, and federal law protected them from paying overtime until firefighters worked more than 212 hours in 28 days and police officers exceeded 171 hours in that time.
Rep. Carl Bearden, R-St. Charles, who wanted the fix for businesses as well as firefighters and police, believes the departments are overstating the impact.
“I think, certainly, it is within their abilities to manage their issues without jeopardizing public safety,” he said. “There’s no reason law enforcement and firefighters cannot work a 40-hour week.”
The St. Louis Police Department has completely revamped the year’s schedule for its officers to lower costs under the new law. The changes affect the times officers can appear in court and how they cover special events such as parades, said spokesman Sam Dotson. For the three months before the new schedule, the department incurred an additional $300,000 to $400,000 in overtime costs.
Some agencies said they would consult with their attorneys to seek an injunction against the law until a judge rules on the pending lawsuit. St. Louis Fire Chief Sherman George said an employee recently filed a complaint with the Division of Labor Standards asking to be paid for the accrued overtime that most departments, including St. Louis, have yet to pay.
Mark Woolbright, a lobbyist with the Missouri State Council of Firefighters, said one complaint could trigger a cascade of payouts throughout the state - and the fines for withholding the overtime are twice as much as the overtime itself.
“Everyone’s been sweating,” he said.