Recognising Your Extra Effort During Wildfire Season

These past three fire seasons in Oregon have been tough. Away from home, stepping up to fill in, long hours, maintaining a state of readiness, making sure operations continue unabated and so much more.  The efforts have not gone un-noticed by our Executives with unprecedented recognition days in the past two years.  I thought it would be a good time to provide a reminder of the regular ways you might be recognized.

Work Out-of-Classification (Article 26), states when an employee is assigned to perform the duties of a position in a higher level classification for more than 10 consecutive calendar days, the employee shall be paid 5% above the employee’s base pay rate of pay or the first step of the higher salary range, whichever is higher.  There is more.

Travel Policy (Travel Expense, Article 36.3 A, C), states if an employee is absent from his/her official station and traveling to the fire or other emergency site and stops for a commercially prepared meal, he/she will receive a meal allowance consistent with …. DAS Travel Policy.  There is more.

Standby Duty/ On-Call Duty (Article 34), standby duty is when an employee is required to be available for work outside his/her normal working hours, and subject to restrictions consistent with the FLSA which would prevent the employee from using the time while on standby duty effectively for the employee’s own purposes.  Pay at straight time rate of pay. There is more

On-Call, is when an employee is specifically required to be available for work outside his/her working hours and not subject to restrictions which would prevent the employee from using the time while on-call effectively for the employee’s own purposes. Pay at 1 hour of straight time for each 6 hours of assigned on-call duty.  There is more

These are examples of our negotiated Contract language that recognizes your contribution, direct and indirect, to keeping Oregon’s Forests green.  For more information contact your Steward, Member Resource Center, elected leadership or our Statewide Organizer, Mike Bray.  Be Safe.