By Andrew Wellner
Anchorage Daily News (Alaska)
Copyright 2006 Anchorage Daily News
PALMER, Alaska — The union that represents Matanuska-Susitna Borough employees should be allowed to negotiate on behalf of certain emergency responders, the borough Labor Relations Board ruled Friday.
In a written opinion, the board said first responders such as medics and firefighters who work more than 1,000 hours in a year should be considered regular employees, subject to representation from the Matanuska-Susitna Borough Employee’s Association.
Responders are generally considered on-call employees, paid for time worked but not entitled to benefits and union representation. Those responders who work fewer than 1,000 hours will retain on-call status.
The borough hasn’t decided what this means for their responders.
“A very simplistic summary of what that means is, after a certain number of hours of you being on call, you have to receive full health and fringe benefits or you just can’t be an on-call person and so we have to go get another one,” Borough Manager John Duffy said in an interview before the board ruled.
The board’s ruling is likely not the last word on the matter. A civil suit the union filed May 24 in Superior Court asks that a judge decide basically the same question.
Both sides agreed at a Friday hearing before the board that the case will proceed regardless of the board’s finding.
At the hearing, borough human resources director Patricia Von Ah testified that the borough had looked at the possibility of keeping responders’ yearly hours below 1,000.
The borough decided to proceed with caution because “it could be a life/safety issue,” she said.
In his closing arguments, attorney Thomas Daniel, representing the borough, said that emergency responders were never considered regular employees and were not subject to the union’s collective bargaining agreement with the borough. Therefore, he said, their status should not be changed.
Dennis Geary, representing the union, said he agreed that borough responders were never part of the union’s agreement.
“Until recently, the on-call responders’ hours were not even on the blip,” Geary said.
But the borough has come to rely more heavily on its roster of 420 on-call responders. Many are scheduled regularly to staff fire stations. More than a dozen worked over 1,000 hours, according to the latest available numbers presented at the meeting.
Geary said he doesn’t think these employees should have to “hit the streets” but are certainly entitled to more benefits than they are getting. And he wants the borough to enter into negotiations with his organization.