ISSUES FACING YOUR JEFFERSON FIREFIGHTERS

Jefferson Firefighters have attempted to participate in good faith negotiations with Parish President Cynthia Lee Sheng since she took office in January of 2020. Our attempts to work hand in hand with her administration have been met with years of delays, numerous stall tactics, hundreds of thousands of wasted tax dollars on two flawed and inaccurate pay studies, and a complete lack of respect for the men and women of the Eastbank Consolidated Fire Department.

All parish employees start at an hourly rate of $14.03 per hour, while your firefighters earn just $10.53 per hour as a starting wage. The work parish employees do is critical to keep our parish moving forward and we respect the hard work and dedication of these employees. However, Parish President Sheng, and now Councilman Deano Bonano have begun waging a war against your firefighters. They have hired a public relations firm, gone on local radio shows spreading misinformation about your firefighters, and even gone as far as getting a restraining order against one of our members for exercising his right to free speech.

What Mrs. Sheng and Mr. Bonano will not tell you is that there are funds available to provide firefighters a raise. There were also ample funds available for many years now, however through administrative inaction, wasteful spending, potential illegal budget reallocation outside of the dedicated fire millage, federal disaster reimbursement diverted away from the fire department and into other parish departments, and flat out incompetence they now want to say that you, the taxpayer, would bear the burden of firefighter pay increases. WE SAY NO. The fiduciary responsibility to operate the fire department effectively falls squarely on our elected leaders, not the men and women who staff emergency equipment to keep our community safe.

STAND WITH US, YOUR JEFFERSON FIREFIGHTERS. Please like, follow, and share our Facebook page. As well as read our Facts About Your Firefighters listed below. We will continue to update our website and Facebook page so please check back frequently for more information on how you can support your Jefferson Firefighters.

  • The suppression division of EBCFD has 234 fire suppression personnel with 78 personnel assigned to each of three platoons: A, B, and C. The positions include: firefighter, equipment operator, lieutenant, captain, district chief, and assistant chief.

  • When not responding to emergencies, firefighters:

        •    Inspect and maintain personal protective equipment

        •    Check and service apparatus and tools

        •    Conduct daily training and department-wide drills

        •    Inspect fire hydrants

        •    Perform pre-incident planning surveys for businesses

        •    Maintain stations

        •    Conduct public education programs in schools and businesses

    Emergency response is only part of the job. Preparation and prevention are daily responsibilities.

  • Starting firefighters earn $10.53 per hour with a base salary of $26,287 annually, based on 48 hours per week. However, firefighters are scheduled to work 56.5 hours per week, meaning 8.5 hours are scheduled overtime.

  • Firefighters work 56.5 hours per week or 2,938 hours a year. Most other parish employees work 35 or 40 hours per week, or 1,820 or 2080 hours per year, respectively, depending on their position. They are eligible for overtime after 40 hours worked per week.

  • Firefighters are scheduled to work 56.5 hours per week. Eight and a half of those hours are built-in overtime due to the schedule structure. This overtime, according to the parish’s own MMA study, is the most cost-effective way to provide 24/7/365 fire protection without closing stations or having delayed emergency response.

  • Most fire departments nationwide operate on a 56.5-hour schedule because it is cost-effective for taxpayers.

    The alternatives would be:

        •    Reducing staffing per shift, which impacts public and firefighter safety.

        •    Adding a fourth platoon, which would significantly increase personnel costs.

  • Yes. Firefighters, police officers, and sheriffs deputies statewide receive $7,200 annually in state supplemental pay. This program was intended to supplement local pay, not replace the responsibility of local government to provide competitive wages.

    To add state supplemental pay into a firefighter’s base hourly rate to artificially inflate the base rate is prohibited under Louisiana law, and no other fire department in the state of Louisiana uses this as a tactic to inflate firefighter base pay, with the exception of Jefferson Parish. 

  • Yes. Firefighters receive the same number of holidays as other parish employees. However, holiday pay only covers the first 12 hours of a 24-hour shift. Firefighters remain on duty and away from family for the full 24 hours.

  • Yes. Firefighters advance through a pay matrix with annual percentage increases similar, but not identical to all other parish employees. These raises were put in place by the Louisiana legislature to reward employees experience and tenure gained to retain institutional knowledge within the department. However, a firefighter’s starting wage is $10.53 per hour while other parish employees start at $14.03 per hour. This means it takes a firefighter more than four years to reach an hourly rate close to the starting wage of other parish employees and at that point still are not at equivalent hourly rates.

  • No. Firefighters work 20 twelve-hour equivalent days per month, depending on the rotational schedule, totaling approximately 240 hours per month. Most parish employees work 20 eight-hour days (160 hours) or 20 seven-hour days (140 hours) per month.

    If the total hours a firefighter is scheduled to work in a year were to be converted into 8 hour days, that would mean firefighters would work 360 of 365 days a year.

  • No. Firefighters purchase their own meals while on duty. The department covers utilities for stations, similar to any public facility.

  • Firefighters participate in the same health plans as other parish employees.

    Family coverage premiums range from approximately $1,088.18 to $1,298.60 monthly. Your parish employees and firefighters pay almost double as compared to neighboring municipalities for similar health coverage. 

    This means that a starting firefighter with family health insurance deducted from their paycheck takes home less than $550 every two weeks.

    In an effort to lower insurance premiums for parish employees, firefighters, and the parish paid portion of health insurance premiums, we have attempted to obtain basic claims data from administrators in the Parish President’s office and Human Resources Department. Those efforts have been met with strong push back. The Parish President’s office and Human Resources Department have even refused to provide that information to the Louisiana Office of Group Benefits.

  • Yes. Two pay studies were authorized and completed with your tax dollars. The first was manipulated to include departments with high administrative salaries. The second was interfered with once numbers were produced. Different cities were added, new benchmarks called for, and improper data points. Such as using old salary data from New Orleans and Baton Rouge to make it appear firefighters in Jefferson Parish are paid comparable to their peers. The timeline is listed below. 

    • 2020 Pay Study: Identified need for adjustments at early career levels.

    • 2020-2023 all pay talks stop due to the Covid -19 Pandemic 

    • November 2023: Proposal presented.

    • May 2024: Administration requested new study.

    • June 2024: Study placed on agenda.

FAQ