Two firefighters who went home sick are suspended. North Providence mayor calls it a “mini-walkout” to protest a work assignment.

It was about a-month-ago that we last checked in with Rhode Island’s North Providence Fire Department. That’s when a battalion chief was arrested on charges he falsified the amount of overtime he had worked. Now two firefighters are suspended after a disciplinary hearing yesterday. The mayor claims the pair were protesting a work assignment. Here are excerpts from a story by the AP:

Mayor Charles Lombardi said the two firefighters were already at work at their station, but went home sick after being ordered to work at other locations in the city that day because their ladder truck was under repair.

Lombardi referred to the Sept. 29 incident as a “mini-walkout, mini-sickout.“ He said the fire department was forced to call in two other firefighters on overtime because of minimum staffing requirements.