THUNDER BAY - Local firefighters will work longer hours in the new year and union officials say the extended shifts bring many benefits.
Thunder Bay Fire Rescue is launching a three-year trial shift schedule that will see about 180 suppression firefighters working 24-hour shifts.
The new shift will be 24-hours on, followed by 24-hours off, 24-hours on, and then five days off. The trial schedule was the result of an interim award from arbitration that was held in June as part of ongoing collective bargaining between the city of Thunder Bay and the Professional Firefighter’s Association.
“We’ve never been able to negotiate it but the arbitration process has been awarding them,” said Denis Brescacin, president of the Thunder Bay Professional Firefighter’s Association Local 193. “A lot of locals in Ontario have negotiated it. The results of their trials have seemed to put that in place permanently.”
According to Brescacin, 85 per cent of firefighters in Ontario are already on a 24-hour shift, with some departments, such as the Windsor department, using the shift for the past 40 years.
“There is scientific evidence that concludes fire personnel on a rotating schedule of days and nights exhibit a higher level of desynchronization of the body’s natural circadian rhythms than fire personnel working 24-hours,” he said.
Firefighters in Thunder Bay currently use a schedule that sees them work four 10-hour day shifts, followed by four days off, then four 14-hour night shifts.
“When they are doing their four night shifts, by night four it is pretty exhausting,” Brescacin said. “They are working 14-hours followed by 10-hours off, then another 14-hours. By night four it’s exhausting. So this new shift pattern will allow them a 24-hour period of rest before they have to come in again.”
Thunder Bay Fire Rescue chief, John Hay, said administration has had about a month to make the necessary adjustments to all the policies and terms and conditions that were part of the interim award.
“It should have no effect on our operation other than our firefighters will be working for 24-hours instead of 10 and 14 hours,” Hay said. “We expect there to be no budget impact. We expect there should be no impact on service. We will certainly work to make sure that happens and of course no impact on firefighter health and safety.”
Hay added that there is no budget impact because firefighters will be working the same number of hours as they did in 2016.
“Their work will be compressed and the time off will be expanded slightly,” Hay said.
According to Hay, it’s not a matter of how long it took for Thunder Bay to implement a 24-hour shift that has been utilized for decades in other parts of the province, because Thunder Bay is in a unique position.
“We are farther away from Southern Ontario where commutes were part of the norm and part of the impetus for the 24-hour shifts,” he said. “It was brought up in negotiations and was ruled on by the arbitrator.”
For the next three years, indicators on efficiency will be monitored to see if moving to the 24-hour shift has any impacts on staff or service.
“We are committed to providing the same level of service or better,” Hay said. “We are looking for efficiencies in overtime, maybe there will be less overtime and maybe there will be less sick time. We don’t know, which is why we are measuring those parts of it.”
Brescacin believes the fire service will benefit from the new shift, just as other departments across Ontario have demonstrated.
“It’s healthier for them,” he said of staff. “They feel more relieved, they have more time with their family and feel less stressed.”
