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Union asks court for emergency order for back wages, interest
By FRAN SPIELMAN
The Chicago Sun-Times (Illinois)
Chicago firefighters and paramedics who put their lives on the line every day are getting shortchanged: They’re owed thousands of dollars apiece because of payroll mistakes that have dragged on for more than a year.
Two shorted firefighters were forced to take out loans for mortgages or child support. More than 100 retirees have waited up to 11 months for final checks.
Holiday and overtime checks are chronically late or “missing” for months. Nearly 200 firefighters promoted in January 2005 are still waiting for the raises that go with their new ranks. Members of the Feb. 1 recruit class got their first paychecks more than a week late. The class that graduated a year earlier has yet to receive a 12-month step increase boosting their $44,838-a-year salary by $10,000.
The bottom line is a pay fiasco traced to the city’s new computerized payroll system that has affected more than 1,000 firefighters and paramedics.
After filing 494 pay-related grievances, the Chicago Fire Fighters Union Local 2 this week filed an emergency motion in Circuit Court seeking back pay with interest for affected members.
“Our guys lay their lives down on the line every single day. Services are rendered. They’re not being paid,” said union President John Chwarzynski.
Chwarzynski said he alerted Fire Commissioner Cortez Trotter to the payroll problems during a private meeting May 18, 2005.
At the time, Trotter “tried to shift blame to the comptroller, the new computer program and new employees,” Chwarzynski said. Trotter said he would “get to the bottom of it and have it done within 30 days,” the union president said.
On Friday, Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford said Trotter is keeping his word to assist in fixing payroll issues.
“We expect to have the great majority of [back pay] cases settled in weeks,” he said in an e-mailed statement. “But we must emphasize that all CFD personnel are being paid.”
Langford said Trotter is working to get pay raises into firefighters’ pockets “in a timelier manner” and conceded a problem with some paramedic candidates’ pay, but, “They have all now been paid and are current.”
A firehouse automation program Trotter initiated is being tested.