The allegations of misuse of sick time in the fire department at Medford of Massachusetts are being investigated by the city officials.
Almost all the firefighters said this month at a week’s end, to cover the vacant changes costing approximately $ 100,000 with overtime.
In a meeting on Tuesday, the Medford City Council discussed how the Medford Fire Department was being run. There was a hot debate on whether the retiring situation by retiring Chief John Freedman would be filled out of the hire or within the department.
Medford’s Mayor Brana Lango-Kohan says on 3 February, 23 out of 23 firefighters called the sick out for their day shift.
“I believe it was an orchestrated incident,” said the Mayor Brana Lango-Kohan of Medford.
She says that many of them were paid for that sick time, then came to the night shift and collected overtime, causing the city to be more than $ 92,000.
“We are outside our budget. We alone have about $ 100,000 from that weekend, and we need in this community that need to be found, ”Lungo-Kohan said.
Medford Firefighters Local 1032 denied those claims, called “rumors and gossip” and threatening legal action.
The Sangh said in a statement on Tuesday, “The local 1032 has made several attempts to directly address these false allegations with the mayor, but each was ignored by him in favor of promoting these allegations through baseless and defamation statements on social media and news.” “The local 1032 clearly denies any participation or convenience of misuse of sick time. The Sangh has always been clear that misuse of any kind of sick time is unacceptable. ,
Talking with reporters on Tuesday, Sangh president AD Bakle said, “It is not my business why they use their sick day.”
He neither condensed nor explained why so many firefighters called out, only claimed that the mayor has a history of attacking unions.
“I can’t explain it, they used their constructive rights to use a sick day,” he said.
Asked if all the 21 firefighters who called out for that day’s shift were ill, Bakle replied, “I am not a doctor, I can’t answer it, I am sorry.”
In the meeting of the city council on Tuesday night, Lungo-Kohan asked to fill the open main post of the Medford Fire Department, one of which was to choose to oversee the situation. But the firefighting departments are calling someone to promote.
Statewide Union, Professional Fire Fighters of Massachusetts, sent an email with the subject row “ATTN: Medford Local 1032 – Fire Chief Position – request to stand down.”
“Executive Board of Medford Firefighters and members of the local 1032 strongly believe that qualified and eligible candidates within the Medford Fire Department can fill this vacancy and maintain that the situation must go to an internal candidate,” read email. “As a result, we avoid applying for PFM members from external departments for interim fire fighting heads and fire positions.”
Bakle said, “They don’t know Medford, they are not from Medford, they did not grow up in Medford, they did not serve the citizens of Medford, they do not have knowledge that our members have.”
The city council voted to the committee for the main discovery table.