“Our EMTs are going to have to take a pay-cut”

“I like two words from your speech: tough decisions,”

Commission Chair Bill Simonds told ninth district congressional candidate Martha Zoller. Earlier this month, Zoller spoke at the Fannin County GOP meeting. During the public commentary part of the program, Simonds used the opportunity to talk about the tough decisions he and the other commissioners have to make. The first and seemingly more pressing decision is the decision to give a pay-cut to the county’s EMT employees.

“Our EMTs,” Simonds said, “are going to have to take a pay-cut; it’s not a pay-cut (though), it’s just something that they (the county) have been paying (to the EMTs).”

Simonds explained that EMTs work 24 hours, have off 48 hours, and then work another 24 hours, for a total of 48 hours. For the last 13 years, the county has been paying them the eight hours over time. Last year, the county paid emergency employees 9608 hours in overtime, equaling $204,682. And, this year, over the past 10 months, the county paid emergency employees for 6961 hours of overtime, for a total of $157,246.45. Simonds, however, argues that he is not cutting EMT overtime unjustly. Simonds asserts that EMT’s are eligible for overtime at 53 hours, not for time over forty hours. He feels that past administrations have incorrectly compensated EMTs and now, Simonds’ tough decision is correcting the overtime payments.

“The previous board of commissioners didn’t do their job,” Simonds explained, adding that, “if we don’t do anything about this, we’re no better than the previous administration.”

However, at the October 25th Board of Commissioners meeting, County Attorney Lynn Doss offered a different perspective. She said that in regard to EMS overtime, the previous administration did not do anything wrong. Doss said that the previous administration was within the bounds of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FSLA) in paying Fannin County EMT employees overtime for more than 40 hours within a given work week. Simonds, though, is also true to the FSLA in seeking to extend overtime for worked hours beyond 53 hours a week.

The basis for this is the 207(k) exemption, commonly known as 7K. This exemption

“allows a city to establish a work period of 7 to 28 consecutive days for determining when overtime pay is due to employees engaged in fire protection or law enforcement activities…For example, employees engaged in fire protection activities must be paid overtime for hours worked beyond 212 during a 28-day work period (53 [hours] in a 7-day work period).”

Paramedics, emergency medical technicians, rescue workers, and ambulance personnel are included in the fire fighters rule under section 203(y) of the FSLA.

The legality of the change, though, does not eliminate citizens’ concern for the stability of emergency services. At the October 25th meeting, concerned citizen and volunteer fireman Jack Worthey said he was concerned about the cuts to public safety. Worthey said that his wife has an aneurism and is concerned about her health.

“I got to where I hate to leave her by herself, “

he said.

In a recent conversation with FYN, Simonds said that the change is already being implemented and that this week will be the first week with the new overtime rules.