Volunteer FF/EMS Job Protection Bill Passes H

[Guest]

I got this as an e-mail this morning:

NVFC-Backed Volunteer Job Protection Bill Passes House of Representatives

On May 9, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Volunteer Firefighter and EMS Personnel Job Protection Act as part of H.R. 1684, the Department of Homeland Security Authorization Act. This Act provides job protection for volunteer emergency services personnel responding to a Presidentially-declared disaster for up to 14 days per calendar year.

“Volunteer first responders shouldn’t be put in the position of having to choose between their jobs and responding to a major disaster,†said National Volunteer Fire Council (NVFC) Executive Director Heather Schafer. “Passage of this bill eliminates the threat of termination or demotion.â€

The legislation also reduces pressure on emergency managers who rely heavily on the availability and performance of the more than 800,000 volunteer first responders around the country. Pre-emergency planners must know what assets they have available to them so the deployment process can move as smoothly and quickly as possible.

The Volunteer Firefighter and EMS Personnel Job Protection Act was introduced as H.R. 1643 on March 22 by Congressman Rob Andrews (D-NJ) along with original co-sponsors Michael Castle (R-DE), Randy Kuhl (R-NY), and Bill Pascrell (D-NJ). The bill language was then offered as an amendment to H.R. 1684 by Congressmen Andrews and Pascrell, along with Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter (D-NH).

“I’d like to thank all of our supporters in the House of Representatives for working with us to get this legislation passed,†said Schafer. “This bill means peace of mind for volunteer first responders and improves our nation’s emergency response capacity.â€

The legislation only applies to emergency responders acting in an official capacity. “Self-responders†would not be eligible for job protection under this bill, and employers have the right to ask for documentation from the official supervising the response to verify that the employee was involved in an official capacity.

H.R. 1684 now goes to the Senate. The NVFC will continue to work to with our allies on the Hill and with other fire service organizations to ensure passage of the Volunteer Firefighter and EMS Job Protection Act in the Senate so that it can be sent to the President and signed into law.

[helicopper 1,050]

The legislation only applies to emergency responders acting in an official capacity. “Self-responders” would not be eligible for job protection under this bill, and employers have the right to ask for documentation from the official supervising the response to verify that the employee was involved in an official capacity.

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Gotta highlight the fine print here! If you're not part of the solution you're only part of the problem!

[Guest partyrock]

How much would that suck, you step up and respond to a major disaster only to have it fall short of federal disaster and wind up only a state declared emergency. I really don't wanna see a bunch of guys have to wind up "accidentally" backing a truck into the nearest at risk dam for those disasters that are on the fence.

[Guest]

Here's a link to the entire bill:

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c110:H.R.1643:

Here's the pertinent information if you don't want to go read the bill:

Termination Prohibited- No employee may be terminated, demoted, or in any other manner discriminated against in the terms and conditions of employment because such employee is absent from or late to the employee's employment for the purpose of serving as a volunteer firefighter or providing volunteer emergency medical services as part of a response to an emergency or major disaster.

Deployment- The prohibition in subsection (a) shall apply to an employee serving as a volunteer firefighter or providing volunteer emergency medical services if such employee--

(1) is specifically deployed to respond to the emergency or major disaster in accordance with a coordinated national deployment system such as the Emergency Management Assistance Compact or a pre-existing mutual aid agreement; or

(2) is a volunteer firefighter who--

is a member of a qualified volunteer fire department that is located in the State in which the emergency or major disaster occurred;

is not a member of a qualified fire department that has a mutual aid agreement with a community affected by such emergency or major disaster; and

has been deployed by the emergency management agency of such State to respond to such emergency or major disaster.

Two of the sponsors are Bill Pascarell, who is from Paterson, NJ and Randy Kuhl is from upstate NY.

"Self-responders" are people who are not VFD/EMS who just show up and try to get off work or claim that they were helping when they most likely were not. And I think the term"mutual aid" covers things that are local in nature. I think a great example of this would be someone who was on mutual aid for the lumberyard fire in Vista, NY and went late to work because of it. He'd be acting in an official capacity in a mutual aid situation--which would cover NY and CT.

(Sorry about the formating: copying directly from the bill made smileys and symbols appear where they didn't belong.)

[Guest partyrock]

  And I think the term"mutual aid" covers things that are local in nature.  I think a great example of this would be someone who was on mutual aid for the lumberyard fire in Vista, NY and went late to work because of it.  He'd be acting in an official capacity in a mutual aid situation--which would cover NY and CT.

(Sorry about the formating:  copying directly from the bill made smileys and symbols appear where they didn't belong.)

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Mutual aid covers those who respond to the incident from a community that was not directly affected by the disaster. Volleys responding to NYC in another disaster would be covered as there is currently a mutual aid agreement in place. I'm not positive, but I think DES sending crews to an incident like Binghamton or Katrina would also be covered. Unless your dept for some odd reason has an aid agreement in place you would not be covered if your dpet arrainged to send a rig on its own. A lumber yard fire would not be covered under this legislation.

Edited May 11, 2007 by partyrock