Sun setting on moonlighting in Rhode Island. After layoffs Woonsocket plans to halt second jobs by firefighters.
Read the story from Firefighter Nation
They laid off 11 firefighters on Monday and stopped filling other vacant positions. Now Woonsocket, Rhode Island city officials say the firefighters who are left are going to be so busy and tired making up for the loss of their colleagues, come April, they don’t want the firefighters working second jobs.
As you can imagine IAFF Local 732 president Steve Reilly is already questioning whether it is constitutional for the city to tell firefighters what to do in their off time. The outgoing chief is asking the same questions.
The cutback from 132 to 115 firefighters has already increased the amount of overtime for firefighters. In fighting the layoffs the union did bring up the fatigue factor in court. Now the city seems to be using it against them.
