Jefferson City firefighters union backs move to 48-hour shifts

The Jefferson City Fire Department is scheduled to begin a new shift policy for its firefighters on Jan. 4.

Under the new plan, firefighters will work 48.5 straight hours followed by 96 hours off.

The current schedule sees staff spend a five-day period alternating 24 hours on and off work each day, followed by a four-day break.

“There’s lots of benefits for the city,” said Jefferson City firefighter Colin Wright, a member of the committee tasked with exploring the shift policy change. “By putting the shifts back-to-back like that, it allows us to come in, knock out a lot of our stuff on the first day, leaving the second day for more training.”

On Thursday, the city’s Public Safety Committee heard a proposed update to the shift strategy that would balance the department’s pay cycle policy with that of the Fair Labor Standards Act.

Wright said the plan is revenue neutral, meaning its implementation will have no financial impact on the city.

“We made a promise to the city to try to keep this cost-neutral, both for firefighters and for the city and there’s going to be probably lots of tweaks that need to happen,” Wright said.

The shift policy change will need city council approval.

More information about the Fair Labor Standards Act as it applies to local fire district employees or police can be found on the U.S. Department of Labor’s website or in this publication from that office.

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