Union: Hub firefighters hosed
BFD commissioner, city taking heat over injured leave changeups
The Boston firefighters’ union is taking aim at Mayor Martin Walsh’s administration and the fire commissioner, claiming in a lawsuit their members on injured leave are being transferred to other forms of leave or given “light duty” in violation of their collective bargaining agreement.
The lawsuit, filed last week in Suffolk Superior Court by the Boston Firefighters Union, IAFF Local 718, seeks a preliminary injunction against Fire Commissioner Joe Finn and the Walsh administration for the violations they say began last September.
A Suffolk Superior judge took the motion for preliminary injunction under advisement Wednesday after a hearing.
“The City, acting through its Fire Commissioner has violated the Union’s rights and the rights of the Union members by changing their status from injured to sick and also by ordering them to perform useless and punitive light duty assignments while recuperating from job related injury or illness,” the suit states.
Walsh’s office declined to comment Wednesday, citing ongoing litigation. Representatives for the union and their attorney did not respond to requests for comment.
Local 718 cited three firefighters who the union claims were improperly moved off injured leave, and whose grievances were allegedly denied on the same day they were filed.
One firefighter was placed on injured leave last June due to a heart disease presumed to be job-related, but was placed on personal sick leave in October by the BFD, a violation of the contract, attorney Paul Hynes wrote.
Two other firefighters, one with a head injury, the other with an injured knee, also were moved from injured leave to “limited duty” and had their grievances instantly rejected, according to Hynes.
The request for a preliminary injunction by Local 718 further states medical practitioners never cleared the men for work, noting one firefighter received three notes from a treatment provider urging “no work no light duty.”
“Although the Union is using three members as examples of the contract violations, this is a continuing violation which involves potentially hundreds of union members,” a footnote in Local 718’s filing states.
The union also claims no harm would be done to the city if their injunction was granted.
City councilors voted to unanimously approve a four-year contract with Local 718 just 14 months ago, which also gave the firefighters a 2% raise each year until 2021. It was the second time the union had come to an agreement without going to arbitration with Walsh’s administration. Finn, a Walsh appointee, has been the BFD’s commissioner since 2014.