Medford metropolis officers are reviewing what Mayor Breanna Lungo-Koehn believes was “questionable sick and overtime use” within the hearth division, a transfer the hearth union is blasting for her “baseless and defamatory statements.”
Lungo-Koehn, in a letter to the union earlier this month and in a public assertion final week, known as a wave of sick calls within the hearth division between Feb. 2 – 6 an “orchestrated event,” costing town over $92,000, the mayor alleges.
The union is combating again, threatening to file an unfair labor observe grievance in opposition to Lungo-Koehn with the state Department of Labor Relations. A supply instructed the Herald the grievance is predicted to be filed by the tip of the day Tuesday.
“Last week, Medford Mayor Breanna Lungo-Koehn publicly attacked the Medford Firefighters Union, IAFF Local 1032, with nothing more than rumors and gossip, claiming that we promoted and facilitated sick time abuse within the Fire Department,” the union stated in an announcement Tuesday.
“Local 1032 has made numerous attempts to address these false accusations directly with the Mayor,” the union’s assertion continues, “but each was ignored by her in favor of publicizing these allegations through baseless and defamatory statements on social media and the news. Local 1032 categorically denies any involvement in or facilitation of sick time abuse.”
The metropolis’s human sources and legislation departments at the side of the mayor’s workplace are reviewing “what the Mayor believes is questionable sick and overtime use by some members of the department,” a metropolis spokesperson instructed the Herald Tuesday morning.
Lungo-Koehn has threatened to refer the matter to the state’s Inspector General and Department of Labor Relations for additional investigation “if the City’s review calls for such a referral,” in accordance with a letter the mayor despatched to union President Walter Buckley on Feb. 6, obtained by the Herald.
Officials, in a launch issued final Wednesday, highlighted how “the majority of scheduled firefighters called out sick for a portion of their 24-hour shift in the first long weekend of February.”
Specifically, 21 of 23 firefighters scheduled to work that Saturday known as out sick, with three lacking work “due to a sickness in the member’s family,” Lungo-Koehn wrote in her letter to Buckley. That pressured the division to employees the day shift with 21 members on extra time, she added.
“I believe that these excessive sick leave call outs over the weekend of February 2nd were an orchestrated event and my office will do everything in its power to continue to review it and make sure it does not happen again,” Lungo-Koehn stated in final week’s launch.
In Medford, firefighters work eight 24-hour shifts per thirty days, with every shift being damaged down into what’s described as a “10-hour day tour” adopted by a “14-hour night tour,” in accordance with officers.
“Most of the firefighters who called out sick for the day tour portion of their shift between February 2 and February 6 reported for duty at 6 PM to work their night tour,” officers stated within the launch.
In whole, the five-day interval that includes the sick callouts “triggered costs to the city of over $92,000 – $58,000 of which was overtime,” the discharge states.
“These overtime expenses are a tremendous waste of City resources, threaten our ability to budget for the rest of the city and school departments, and the number of call outs, quite frankly, paints the (union) in a (humble) light,” Lungo-Koehn wrote to Buckley.
After Buckley obtained the letter from the mayor, he wrote to union members that officers had been starting to assessment the sick depart, including “this union does not condone or support any possible ‘job action’ by our members.”
“In order to protect our membership, I ask that you cease and desist any actions of this nature that could be misconstrued as illegal behavior or abuse of sick time,” Buckley wrote to members on Feb. 6 in a letter obtained by the Herald.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”