Is this a whistle blower issue?

[systemet]

The City here is the jury. What say you: Legitimate termination of the employee, or unfair activity on the part of the employer?

It sounds pretty clear that she was terminated for talking to the press. I know nothing about US whistleblower laws, and I'm a little surprised that these mandatory overtime situations are legal.

I've never worked in a system that has formal mandatory over time. I've worked in busy systems where there's a good chance of getting a call in the last five minutes of your shift, and cycle time is over 90 minutes, then your truck is active while you return to the station, so there's a chance of getting hit again. I've put in 14 hour night shifts that have turned into 18, and in some of the places I've worked, it's just been accepted that you're going to log a few hours of OT every week.

Some of this is just an unavoidable part of EMS: Much of it could be reduced by more staffing, and better system management. But there's a certain reality that unless you grey out every truck for a fixed time before the end of its shift (60 minutes? 30 minutes? Longer in rural areas perhaps?) you're going to do some OT.

But I'm also surprised that it seems like a lot of people are supporting this practice. We've recognised in other industries that fatigue compromises performance. We don't let truckers drive 20 hours straight in most countries. We have limits on when pilots time-out (often we have different limits for when flight crews time out than for the medical crew). There's obvious and real risks to operating an emergency vehicle or performing patient care.

I might be an idealist, but it seems like there should be a (non-punitive) mechanism for someone to turn around and say, "Look, I'm just too tired, I need to go out of service", especially if you're expecting them to pull ridiculous hours, doing things like 1800-0800 nights, then hitting OT, and still being on night shift at 1000. Obviously there's a responsibility for the staff member to show up to work well-rested and prepared to work, but there needs to be a safety mechanism to prevent accidents.

[Richard B the EMT]

Going back to my last posting, if a member of FDNY EMS goes home for family emergency, it gets taken from personal time, in house, referred to as "Annual Leave", measured in hourly units, with a standard work week being 37.5 hours, including meal breaks (yeah riiiight) totalling 40 hours. If one goes home sick, it comes out of "Sick Leave" time. Both are accrued against actual clock hours worked, but I forget the formula for how many work hours equal how many sick and annual leave hours "earned".

If a member goes out, either on regular or O/T hours, as a "Workman's Comp" time, the member then has to go to the department's Bureau of Health Service the next day, between 0800 and 1300, to be either approved as a true Workmans Comp case, or sick leave. If sick leave, the doctor has to approve the member returning to work. If considered a "Comp" case, the member is officially off duty for minimally 14 business days, and under "House Arrest" between 0800 and 1600, as policy is, one is being paid to be at their place of convolescence (they WILL call on you, both on the phone, and personal visits, sometimes the same day to verify that). Then, during or on the conclusion of that time, the member has to return to the BHS to be reevaluated.

When last I went out on an injury under Comp, and was out for a significant period, first off, I had somewhat regular appointments to keep at the BHS. Then, policy says that if the member leaves their place of convelescence, they have to call in with where they are going, and call in again when they return, and given a tracking number for both. They only allow for medical, grocery shopping, pharmacy, or child care as reasons for leaving the house.

There are probably better ways to do this, but until they impliment them...