March 30, 2009
NYC, Buffalo crack down on firefighters OT
Alarmed by growing costs of overtime, New York City and Buffalo plan to curtail overtime hours for the firefighters, which will make it harder for firefighters to spike their pensions just before retiring.
Beginning April 1, the New York City Fire Department will cap overtime for nonemergency work, spreading overtime more evenly among the department and reducing pension costs, according to news reports (here and here). The fire commissioner, Nicholas Scoppetta, said the department would introduce a cap on overtime for firefighters, officers and marshals to 81.25 hours per quarter, or 325 hours a year, for certain tasks that do not involve fighting fires or rescuing people.
Commissioner Scoppetta said some employees have worked "excessive amounts" of overtime that should have been made available to others. The New York Post reported last month that one firefighter, Lt. Robert Crowe, earned 1,000 hours in overtime in 2008, doubling his $90,673 salary to $183,055.
The city expects is spend $200 million in overtime this year, surpassing a record of $195,000 in 2002 after the World Trade Center attacks, according to the Post.
In Buffalo, firefighter overtime costs jumped from $2.2 million to $10.6 million during the past five years, Buffalo News reports.
City officials said Friday they are working on a plan to drastically reduce overtime by December. At a time when the nation is in a "deep, deep recession," [Finance Commissioner Janet] Penksa said, many firefighters are doubling their incomes through overtime.
"It's abusive," Penksa said. "You have firefighters making $165,000 a year when you factor in overtime." One option under consideration is to hire additional firefighters to fill vacant jobs.
For a link to the Buffalo News two-part series on firefighter overtime, see here. For recent Post stories on overtime , see here and here.
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