Friday, June 9, 2017

Incident Management Rest New Safety Tool for ODF Wildland Firefighters

Incident Management Rest, Rotation and Recovery are words ODF firefighters should be aware of heading into the 2017 wildfire season.  A new policy effective January 1, 2017 establishes a new standard (with some exceptions) to mitigate fatigue following 14 consecutive days working on an incident.  This 14 day period, not including travel, is now recognized as the Standard Assignment and when called the time the employee should be prepared to be away from their regular work station.  

Following 14 consecutive days or nights the employee will be placed on “Incident Management Rest”, (IMR) relieved of their firefighting duties and receive 8 hours of straight time pay.  This even applies if the firefighter returns to their duty station on their regular day off.  This IMR rest period is not in the Contract and has been offered by ODF to mitigate the fatigue associated for those who have worked the full 14 day Standard Assignment.

Rest and Recovery refers to the 8 hours of paid leave when the employee returns on their regularly scheduled work day and has been away from their official work station for 21 or more consecutive days. This paid leave has been in the Contract for a number of years and is referenced in Article 60.3C.

Exceptions can be made in Rest and Rotation depending on incident severity and critical needs.

In short: Incident Management Rest: 8 hours of paid leave following 14 day Standard Assignment, that excludes travel.

Rest and Recovery, 8 hours of paid leave after being away from duty station for 21 or more consecutive days.

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