Katie Rice
Orlando Sentinel
ORLANDO, Fla. — A COVID-19 outbreak at the Reedy Creek Fire Department — the agency that responds to emergency calls across Walt Disney World Resort — has highlighted the lack of support at the department for first responders who are exposed to or contract the virus, members of the agency’s union said.
Jon Shirey, president of the Reedy Creek Firefighters Association, said contact tracing revealed 90 firefighters and paramedics of the department’s 205-person staff have been exposed to the coronavirus in the past two weeks after two employees tested positive at the end of July, and so far 10 have contracted COVID.
At least two of those who tested positive were already vaccinated, he said.
Fire department employees do not receive workers’ compensation for COVID-related claims and have to use personal leave for quarantine or sick days, Shirey said, so many are coming to work with potential COVID symptoms and are not getting tested, posing a transmission risk for others at the resort.
“If we’re sick or hurt, we can’t really help the people that we’re supposed to be serving,” Shirey said. “... And it’s not a good feeling for us. We got into this profession because we like to help people, not because we want to hurt people or we’re gonna get them sick.”
Employees are required to report a positive COVID test to the department, according to the union. Under a previous policy instituted last summer, firefighters could use administrative leave to quarantine after COVID exposure but had to use personal time off for sick leave if they tested positive, said Tim Stromsnes, communications director for the union.
But that policy changed in June, and now employees have to use personal time for both quarantine and sick leave, he said.
Eryka Washington, communications director for the Reedy Creek Improvement District, said the COVID cases and exposures cited by the union were incorrect but added the district cannot release its numbers. She did not confirm details about the agency’s sick leave policy related to COVID-19 or the union’s workers’ compensation claims.
In a statement, she said the district follows “infectious disease protocols.”
“[S]ince the beginning of the pandemic, the district has and will continue to follow the health and safety guidance from the CDC and local health officials to help protect the health and wellness of district employees and the people we serve,” the statement said.
In an unsigned statement, Walt Disney World referred specific questions on the situation to Reedy Creek.
Firefighters exposed even with masks, vaccinations
Fire department employees are required to wear masks indoors and inside vehicles and do their best to comply with the mask mandate, but exposures can still occur in the “living environment” of a fire station, where people eat, sleep and share restrooms during 24-hour shifts, Stromsnes said.
And while employees are not required to be vaccinated, the majority of firefighters at the department are, Shirey said.
The current policy’s terms are causing some employees to come into work with potential symptoms and forgo getting tested for COVID-19 because they do not want to, or cannot, take time off, he said.
“That’s not the kind of culture that we need to be encouraging,” Shirey said. “It would be a lot better if people could just honestly report when they’re having symptoms, that way they’re not risking everybody’s lives and safety with this.”
Stromsnes said he does not think first responders are intentionally coming to work with COVID symptoms. He believes employees who have received the COVID-19 vaccine and contract COVID have minor symptoms and “don’t even know they have it,” he said.
The Reedy Creek Firefighters Association is encouraging employees who have COVID symptoms to take a sick day and get tested for COVID, Shirey said. But the wait for walk-up testing can be long and appointments for scheduled testing are scarce, according to Stromsnes.
“It’s never wrong to do the right thing,” he said. “If they would just do right by people and say, ‘Hey, we’re going to cover you,’ yeah, I think that people would be more inclined to get tested.”
But some people cannot take time out, Stromsnes said, because they have already used their benefit time while quarantining after previous exposures and could lose a paycheck.
“It’s unfortunate that we work for probably one of the wealthiest corporations in America ... and they’ve chosen profits over people,” Shirey said.
Claims denied statewide
Orange County Fire Rescue employees who have COVID-19 symptoms also use personal time, which can be used for sick leave or vacation, for quarantining, spokesperson Lisa McDonald said. Those who test positive can use workers’ compensation until cleared by a doctor to return to work.
Orlando Fire Department employees who are exposed to COVID-19 on the job can file a “notice of first injury” for workers’ compensation but have to use personal leave for quarantining, spokesperson Ashley Papagni said. Vaccinated employees who test positive for COVID-19 could be eligible for up to 80 hours of paid leave through the end of September, she said.
Tonya A. Oliver, first responders’ rights attorney with Tampa-based Oliver & Fox, has represented more than 10 Reedy Creek employees in their workers’ compensation claims. She said those who contracted COVID applied for benefits for everything from quarantine time to specialized pulmonary care and have been denied outright.
Oliver works with employees from fire departments statewide, and she said the COVID-related denials from Reedy Creek’s insurance company mirror a statewide trend of denials despite a state order for first responders who contracted COVID to receive coverage.
“Workers’ compensation is denying these benefits because it’s almost impossible to prove where the COVID exposure occurred,” she said.
But some cases have been resolved with a settlement or payout for workers, including cases from Reedy Creek employees, she said.
Reedy Creek’s first responders are better protected under their workers’ compensation policy than responders at other agencies because of their union’s strong collective bargaining agreement, Oliver said.
“I think Reedy Creek is one of the better agencies taking care of their members, but that comes more so from the union, not from the workers comp or the insurance company,” she said.
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