Categories: The Insider
AFGE Council 243 representing Navy southeast region locals has reached an agreement with the Navy in Florida to provide two years of back pay to more than 80 firefighters in the Pensacola area who had to travel between fire stations on duty time but were not reimbursed. From now on, the firefighters will also be reimbursed for travel mileage.
This is a huge win for the firefighters as they had never been eligible for any travel reimbursement during duty time, unlike other Defense Department employees who are reimbursed for this type of travel under the Joint Travel Regulations (JTR).
The Navy has five fire stations in the area: Naval Air Station (NAS) Whiting Field, NAS Pensacola, NAS Pensacola Sherman Field, Corry Field, and Saufley Field. Every station is in a different geographical location except NAS Pensacola and Sherman Field. Whiting Field and Pensacola and Sherman Field are the farthest apart at about 80 miles roundtrip.
Due to staffing shortages, the firefighters are assigned to go to a different station on a daily basis after they have already arrived at their official work center and their normal commute has already happened. They, however, had never been reimbursed for their travel between these stations.
Between 2019 and 2021, the previous fire chief would transport personnel in government vehicles if they asked and provided a good reason not to use their personal vehicles. If they drove a motorcycle, for example, and couldn’t transport their bunker gear with them. If a government vehicle was available, a driver would drive them to and from their temporary station. But this was inconvenient – if there was an emergency at their home station, they couldn’t go right away as they would have to wait for a driver to come and pick them up. Management found it inconvenient as well as it took the government vehicles and drivers away from the stations.
In 2021 management revoked the use of government vehicles to transport personnel, although they allowed the bunker gear to be transported in a government vehicle. They directed personnel to use their own vehicles to get between stations.
AFGE Local 1960 subsequently filed a grievance on behalf of a firefighter who sought to be reimbursed for travel mileage between stations just like other DoD employees under JTR. Management denied the grievance saying JTR didn’t apply to them.
A year later, the employee bought this up again and was suspended for 14 days. The local and council were able to bring it down to two days after going to arbitration. Later all firefighters were instructed not to submit a reimbursement request in the system or it could be viewed as falsifying documents which could lead to suspension or termination.
The employee got Florida Senator Rick Scott involved, and NAV Pensacola agreed to give him back pay and reimburse him in the future. The agency did not offer this to anyone else.
The council subsequently filed a grievance on behalf of Local 1960 to get everyone back pay. The issue was finally settled last month.
“As a result of this settlement personnel are now allowed to open an account in the Defense Travel System (DTS) so they can file for reimbursement going forward,” said Michael Barrow, unit chair for the fire department Local 1960.
Barrow said a lot of the thanks goes to Council 243 Executive Vice President Brandon Hartzog who stepped up and did the heavy lifting.
“The BUE firefighters of Local 1960 are grateful for the hard work Council 243 committed to this fight. As evidenced by the long fight, Mr. Hartzog particularly was instrumental in getting it done,” Barrow added.
