Lakeland firefighter union has agreed to a new working contract that promises retroactive pay raises and shorter work weeks.
City commissioners voted 6-0 Monday to approve a three-year contract with the International Association of Firefighters Local 4173, representing Lakeland’s unionized firefighters, driver engineers, and lieutenants.
City Manager Shawn Sherrouse said the biggest change in the successor contract is the gradual implementation of a “Kelly Day,” or a day off when the employee would typically be scheduled to work. It is being implemented as a method to reduce the long hours Lakeland’s firefighter are working.
“When we looked at the number of hours those covered by this agreement work when compared to other agencies, our firefighters presently work many more hours,” Sherrouse said. “The Kelly Day adjusts that. It is very important for us to be able to retain the staff that we have and to recruit staff when needed.”
Fire Chief Doug Riley said the department’s employees generally work a 24-hour shift, followed by 48-hours off. This results in the average firefighter working 2,912 hours a year, Riley said, where a person with a typical 40-hour-per-week position will work 2,080 hours a year.
“The truth is we kept finding ourselves boxed in, not being able to attract or retain firefighters,” Union President Shannon Turbeville said. “The demand for service alone makes our current schedule unsustainable.”
By September 2023, the fire department is expected to hire 12 additional employees to implement a 12-hour Kelly Day. This will reduce the firefighter’s average workweek to 52 hours, without including any overtime.
The agency will hire 12 more firefighters the following year to provide a full 24-hour Kelly Day by October 2024, as per the contract, reducing the average workweek to 48 hours. The agreement provides the city may offer a sign-on bonus to attract firefighters to meet its hiring goals.
Lakeland is not the first agency in Polk County to implement this scheduling system, according to Turbeville. Bartow and Winter Haven fire departments already offer Kelly Days.
The Kelly Day schedule will require some tradeoffs from the union.
“For the tenured firefighters, we had a lot of educating to do,” Turbeville said. “I feel there were some concessions made on their part for the best interest of our fire department.”
The existing system of providing union members with compensatory time off will be phased out under the new contract, according to Turbeville.
The new agreement comes with a schedule of slated pay raises for union members, with the biggest boost in the first year. Firefighters will receive a 10% pay raise, driver engineers a 7% raise, and lieutenants 7.5% in addition to a 2.5% merit-based raise for eligible employees in fiscal year 2023.
Next fiscal year, all unionized department members will receive a 1.5% across-the-board pay increase and eligible members can receive up to 2.5% merit raise based on their performance review.
In the third year of the contract, Sherrouse said the union agreed to a “me too” clause that will provide them with the same across-the-board and merit raises the commission approves for its non-unionized general employees.
Other changes in benefits will include an increase in tuition reimbursement to $2,500 per year, the same as the city’s general employees. Fire Department employees will only have to wait six months to tap into the reimbursement system, instead of a full year, or receive supervisor approval.