Former assistant fire chief suing for $133,957 in on-call shift work

A former assistant fire chief in Nanaimo is suing the city, stating he was told to perform on-call shift work in the operations department, contrary to his employment contract.

Daniel Murphy, 59, said he has not been paid $133,957, at an hourly rate of $76.46, for 1,752 hours of on-call shift work between February 2017 and May 2018.

His notice of civil claim filed in the Supreme Court of B.C. also said he is owed $15,291 for overtime.

Murphy wrote the city in June stating that “he elected to treat the unilateral changes to his job position as a repudiation of his employment contract,” the notice states.

None of the statements has been proven in court.

The City of Nanaimo has not yet responded to the filing.

John Van Horne, Nanaimo’s director of human resources, said Tuesday, “because this is a personnel matter, we won’t be providing any comment on it at this point.”

The filing said that his salary was $132,436 per year, plus benefits.

Murphy, who said he is now unemployed, started working in the operations department of the Nanaimo Fire Rescue Department in April 2008. While in that section, he was required to perform on-call work.

The job of assistant chief, education and training, in the administration department was offered to Murphy in early 2011. The written employment contract states that job duties were limited to the administrative department and did not include on-call shift work, the notice said.

His decision to accept the job was largely influenced by the opportunity to leave operations duties and not being required to work on-call, it said.

After personnel changes at senior levels of the fire department took place in 2017, Murphy said he was told he would have to carry out on-call work in the operations department.

“In response to the plaintiff’s objection, the city provided him with an ultimatum to either take on this new responsibility or be fired.” Murphy objected to the change, but performed the work, which he said he has not been paid for.

Murphy went on medical leave on May 18. “This was due to the increased stress imposed upon him by the increasing on-call shifts he was asked to take on at his age,” the notice said.

Shortly after he went on medical leave, he learned that someone else was offered his job. That person turned down the offer, the notice said.

Murphy is seeking payment for the overtime and on-call work, as well as damages.