Ottawa firefighters will return to their preferred 48-hour shifts after an arbitrator ruled in their favor, with some new safety provisions from the City Council.
Ottawa Local 523 Firefighters union went through the arbitration process after a grievance to the city in December about a non-negotiated change to their schedule was denied for safety reasons.
The firefighters' grievance concerned a change from 48-hour shifts with 96 hours off to a non-negotiated 24 hours on and 48 hours off.
Former Mayor Bob Eschbach said at the time the contract allowed the city to switch to 24-hour shifts if the fire chief determined safety was compromised by extended shifts and a request was made to the City Council.
Current Mayor Dan Aussem said to The Times the contract was "poorly worded" for both sides and the union believed the contract meant the fire chief must make the request to the union while City Council members believed they would receive the request.
Aussem said the arbitrator sided with the union and ordered both parties to resolve the issue.
Ottawa Local 523 President Ryan Tieman said the two parties came to an "amicable resolution," which has the union reverting to the 48-hour schedule but with new additions such as a cap of no more than 72 hours on shift after overtime.
Tieman said the 48 hours on-shift and 96 off-shift is preferable for firefighters and their personal lives.
"It works a lot better trying to juggle personal life and everything else, and I think that was held in pretty high regard with the union itself," Tieman said.
"With the call volume we see here and the stress of the job in general, it's nice to have that time away to decompress," he added.
Aussem also said the two parties had a "very good" meeting on Monday night prior to placing the new schedule on file during Tuesday night's City Council meeting.
"It went very well and we aired our differences and came to a pretty quick resolution," he said.
It's expected the firefighters will return to their 48-hour schedule on Saturday.