Case Study Firefighter Paramedic Consolidation,City of Los Angeles

MPA Class - Human Resources and Benefits
Fall 2010

Case Study – Firefighter Paramedic consolidation,City of Los Angeles

Facts:

30 years ago, the City Health Department had responsibility for ambulance service – classifications of Attendants and Drivers who primarily drove patients to hospitals and had minimal medical training. The Fire Department (LAFD) only had firefighting function at that time.

In 1970’s much of the Health Department function was transferred to the County and emergency medical response was transferred to the LAFD.

During the decade some ambulance personnel began to be trained as paramedics, with responsibility for performing basic and advanced life support in additional to transport of patients. The level of training and professionalism increased. A new civil service classification of Paramedic was adopted.

Paramedics, non-paramedic ambulance personnel of Attendants and Drivers and Firefighters were in separate job classifications, with unique civil service exam requirements and represented by different unions.

1981 - Paramedics and other emergency medical personnel became part of the Fire and Police Pension System. This was a significant milestone in their goal to become integrated into the fire service and be treated as public safety employees.

1980’s - A pilot program was initiated to train firefighters to become paramedics and serve on engine companies in areas where paramedic workload did not warrant a full time ambulance. This resulted in the paramedic function being handled by two separate civil service classifications.

Late 1980’s - All firefighters were required to become Emergency Medical Technicians (EMT’s) in order to relieve the ambulance workload. Their training was the same as that received by non-paramedic ambulance employees.

As workload increased additional firefighters were trained as paramedics; they received a salary bonus for their “dual function” status, earning the same or more than single function firefighters and paramedics assigned to ambulances. These personnel could be rotated to work on ambulances or engines.

The Paramedic union sued the City Council to block authorization of additional Firefighter-staffed ambulances, insisting this work belonged to their bargaining unit. A court required the City to negotiate before it could implement a budget decision to add more firefighter staffed ambulances, on the basis of case law that required meeting and conferring over transfer of bargaining unit work.

By this time emergency medical calls represented over 80% of the LAFD workload. Paramedics believed they were overworked, underpaid and treated as second- class citizens in the LAFD. The department had a management structure and culture that favored firefighters and provided them with all of the promotional opportunities; paramedics received little respect from their firefighting colleagues with whom they lived and worked. They alleged the excessive workload along with lack of sleep jeopardized their personnel safety and the threatened service to the public.

While recruitment and retention of paramedics/ambulance personnel was a continuing challenge, thousands lined up to take the firefighter exam.

Several proposals to contract out for ambulance service, similar to LA County, were met with serious union and public resistance and eventually abandoned.

Although the paramedic union secured gains for their employees during several contentious contract negotiations, bringing their pay and benefits closer in line with firefighters, they continued to feel unappreciated. Contract negotiations resulted in several impasse proceedings (fact finding), which were of varying success to the paramedics. They continued to be discontent.

The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) affected management’s decision- making process. In 1986, the U.S Supreme Court extended the provisions of the FLSA to state and local government agencies, significantly increasing the overtime liability for Fire Department employees. Firefighters and paramedics, who worked a “platoon duty” schedule averaging 56 hours per week, became entitled to overtime for working their regular shift. Because the FLSA provided firefighters with a higher threshold before overtime pay was required, using firefighters as paramedics could reduce some if the cost.

Some paramedics sought to become firefighters by taking the civil service exam. In order to do so they needed to meet more rigorous physical requirements, which tended to exclude more women, older men and those less physically fit. The single function Paramedic classification continued to include a higher percentage of women but fewer ethnic minorities than the Firefighter classification.

The Fire service had been operating under a Federal Consent Decree for approximately 20 years that required hiring preferences for minorities and women. The decree arose out of lawsuits that alleged discriminatory hiring practices.

1990’s - City management sought to relieve the paramedic workload, reduce costs, provide great efficiency and improve morale in the LAFD.

The City Administrative Officer (CAO) completed a cost-benefit and best practices study, looking at models in other agencies. The City of Chicago stood out as a good comparison because of its similar size and organizational structure; it had recently combined its single function paramedic and firefighters into a combined class.

The City of LA decided to pursue the same path. Although some paramedics supported the move and were enthusiastic to become trained and enter the firefighter classification, others strongly resisted. Motivation ranged from fear that they could not meet the qualification of Firefighter to loss of identity as a unique profession and civil service classification. The paramedic union fought bitterly to retain the status quo.

Eventually the classes were consolidated and the paramedic union became obsolete since it no longer had classifications to represent.

The consolidation met its objectives for the most part, however paramedic trained firefighters continued to carry a heavier share of the workload and substantial salary bonuses were necessary to encourage firefighters to become paramedic trained and retain their certification.

End of Case Study
Questions for discussion

1. How important is it that the diversity in the community (women, minorities) be reflected in the personnel of firefighting and rescue operations?Assuming a city wantsto reflect diversity in its workforce how might it do this to assure merit and equity?
2. What should drive the decision to keep the classifications unique or to combine them?
3. Should cities in tough economic times combine public safety functions, or is there an underlying logic that suggests merging will work in some cases but not in others?
4. Would this scenario have played out differently ifthe paramedics and firefighters were represented by the same union? What significant issues were raised by this case that might not have been raised without the unions?