Report Confirms City of Newton Miscalculated Fire Fighter Sick Leave

March 13, 2007 – The Newton Tab is reporting that the City of Newton, Massachusetts, calculated sick leave inaccurately for Newton, MA Local 863 fire fighters. This is the latest development in the four-year dispute over a sick-time policy in which Newton Mayor David Cohen alleged that fire fighters have been abusing sick leave.

The report acquired by the Newton Tab says that fire fighters used an average of 12.34 sick days in 2002 – twice the actual amount. Fire fighters are awarded 7.5 sick days per year. In 2002, they used an average of 6.17 days. “This proves what we’ve been saying all along,” Local 863 President Francis Capello Jr. told the Newton Tab. “We’re not abusers of sick time. Our job – at times – takes a toll on us, but even with that said, we still don’t use as much sick time as other departments in the city.”

The ongoing fight with Mayor Cohen stems from a sick-time policy requiring fire fighters to file notes from their doctors whenever they call in to use sick time. The sick leave provision is included in all Newton public employee contracts, but it’s only being enforced for the fire fighters.

In January, IAFF General President Harold Schaitberger, along with Local 863 President Capello, IAFF 3rd District Vice President Michael Mullane, Professional Fire Fighters of Massachusetts President Bob McCarthy, Massachusetts AFL-CIO President Robert Haynes and more than 400 fire fighters from across New England, rallied at Newton City Hall in an effort to resolve the dispute.

A spokesperson for Mayor Cohen blames the false figures on “human clerical error” made when two different city workers doubled the amount of average sick days taken by fire fighters.

Newton Local 863 fire fighters have been without a contract for nearly four years. The local’s adversarial relationship with Mayor Cohen began soon after he was elected in 2001. In August 2006, at the IAFF 48th Biennial Convention, the IAFF unanimously passed a censure of Mayor Cohen.