January 26, 2007

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Subcommittee approves bill requiring small police and fire departments to pay more overtime

A House General Laws subcommittee has recommended passage of HB 2516, which would require law enforcement agencies and fire departments with fewer than 100 employees to begin counting paid vacation time as “hours worked” when calculating overtime payments due to their employees.

When the General Assembly adopted that rule for firefighters a couple of years ago, and later extended it to police and deputy sheriffs, departments with fewer than 100 employees were excluded form the requirement.

The patron, Del.Charles W. Carrico Sr. (Grayson), admitted that the bill is an unfunded mandate.

Figures provided by some jurisdictions indicate the bill will impose significant additional overtime costs on fire and law enforcement agencies in small and mid-sized localities.

As in past years, the State Police continue to be exempt from the “hours worked” rule, presumably because both past and current patrons have known that it would be difficult to secure added state funding to apply the rule to them.

The House General Laws Subcommittee No.1 voted 4-2 to recommend approval of the bill. The full committee will consider it on Tuesday, Jan. 30, at 8:30 a.m. Affected localities should contact their delegates on the House General Laws Committee to ask them to oppose HB 2516.

Contact House General Laws Committee members now.

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