Innisfil’s firefighters union cannot interfere with the town’s right to hire fulltime firefighters from other municipalities as volunteers, a labour board arbitrator has ruled.
The Sept. 10 ruling allows the town to use so called two hatters as volunteers even though they are forbidden by the International Fire Fighters Association’s constitution.
The town filed a grievance against the Innisfil Professional Fire Fighters Association after its president, Jim Hunter, threatened a Toronto firefighter hired by the town with charges under the union’s constitution.
The Toronto firefighter was told he could lose his fulltime job for violating the union’s rules about holding a firefighting position in two municipalities.
However, arbitrator O.B. Shime said Hunter’s action violated Innisfil’s “unfettered right” to use the most qualified firefighters available as volunteers.
“I determine that Mr. Hunter’s actions in cautioning (the firefighter) as he did were not reasonable, and, by so doing, he not only threatened (the firefighter’s) employment in Toronto, but also interfered with the (town’s) unfettered right to use volunteer firefighters regardless of their permanent employee elsewhere,” Shime stated in his written ruling.
Several Ontario volunteer firefighters have quit their second jobs over fears of losing their fulltime employment. For instance, seven two hatters stopped volunteering in Orangeville last year after being pressured by the union.
Shine said Innisfil is allowed to hire two hatters because its labour contract with the firefighters trumps the union’s constitution.
If the union wants to ban two hatters it would have to negotiate the practice with town, Shime said.
The ruling could have far reaching implications throughout rural Ontario, where municipalities use volunteer firefighters.
Orangeville, which also has a grievance filed against its firefighters union for threatening two hatters, was awaiting the Innisfil decision.
Firefighters’ associations have argued two hatters create a safety hazard because they may be volunteering while fatigued from their fulltime job.
But Shime rejected that notion in the case of Innisfil’s volunteer firefighters, saying of 96 volunteers only six are two hatters.
“Volunteers have the option of declining an assignment, and therefore a volunteer firefighter, who was fatigued as a result of an event occurring elsewhere, is capable of declining a volunteer assignment,” Shime stated in his ruling.
Evidence at last summer’s arbitration hearing showed the Toronto firefighter, who is an Innisfil resident, became a volunteer in the hope of eventually being hired fulltime.
Indeed, Hunter had been a two hatter in his early years with the fire department.
“According to his own testimony he had, as the local Association president, agreed with the Chief permitting the (town) to use two hatters and also had unilaterally permitted others employed by the (town) to became two hatters,” Shime’s ruling stated. “If safety is a legitimate concern, then Mr. Hunter’s failure to limit his local members is a serious indictment of his own conduct in permitting tow hatters.”
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