MOBILE, Ala. (WALA) – A judge on Thursday denied a request by the city’s firefighters union to immediately halt a pay incentive program for police officers.
The International Fire Fighters Association Local 1349 filed a lawsuit against the city and the Mobile County Personnel Board, alleging that the Shift Incentive Pay Plan violates a requirement that pay for police and firefighters be equitable. The plaintiffs also made a separate request for a temporary restraining order.
Mobile County Circuit Judge Michael Windom heard arguments from both sides on Wednesday in a courtroom filled with first responders. He ruled that the union had not been able to demonstrate “immediate and irreparable damage.”
Mobile Chief of Staff James Barber said he believes the judge made the right decision.
“All we’re talking about is, you know, money, basically,” he said. “And so, anybody that’s harmed in that way, you could always retroactively be corrected.”
This judge’s ruling does not end the case. He set another hearing for Oct. 6 on a request that he declare the city’s shift incentive system illegal. The city maintains that the incentives program does not violate the pay parity rule.
The pay incentive that the firefighters union is available for police officers who have earned a qualified certification from the Alabama Peace Officers Standards and Training Commission. But the shift incentive pay does not apply to firefighters who have achieved similar certification from the Alabama Fire College and Personnel Standard Commission.
Barber defended the city’s policy.
“They’re there to incentivize duties that are undesirable, like working rotating shifts, or that are particularly hazardous, like SWAT or the HAMAT team, or that are restrictive in nature,” he said. “In other words, they’re not able to really be off to go have a good time and go out with the kids, or leave town because you’re in a call-back status or on-call availability status.”
Barber added that police officers and fire-rescue workers all have versions of those incentives.
“There are multiple incentives in the Fire Department that are unique to the Fire Department. There’s multiple centers and the Police Department, again, unique to the Police Department,” he said. “Do those violate parity? And so what we were trying to determine with the judge is, if so, then we can pretty much scrap all of our incentive plans unless everybody has access to them.”
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