-
A long bargaining process resulted in an approved service contact between Osceola County and its Fire Rescue Department.
After a long bargaining process, Osceola County and the Osceola Professional Firefighters Association Local #3284 recently came to terms on a new contact that calls for higher starting salaries for county firefighters.
Ratified by the union, the compact, retroactive to October of 2022, “Is a good one,” union President Shawn Perkins said.
In the deal, which runs through Sept. 30, 2025, the base salary for a new firefighter/EMT increases from about $41,000 to $48,495, a $23.80 hourly rate on 40-hour week scale. Engineers, lieutenants, captains and battalion chiefs will also see a 4 to 10% raise.
The contract also adds a floating holiday, as Juneteenth was added as a paid holiday since the last contract was signed.
“The general membership is pretty excited,” Perkins said. “It was nearly a unanimous vote. It’s a good contract and a good pay package. Both sides agree it’s pretty good.”
The new pay scale uses the same formula used for all county employees, which features a target salary that is adjusted on Oct. 1 for a pay raise that nearly all employees get. That inherently fights compression, where the raises new employees see aren’t realized by veteran employees.
“We definitely had guys who were compressed, but this addresses it,” Perkins said.
“We weren’t asking for anything out of the ordinary, just treat us like you treat (other county employees),” he said. “The starting rate makes us super competitive with other local agencies.”
With the county bringing new stations on Boggy Creek Road and Calypso Cay online this year, and adding another rescue unit to Station 54 in Harmony, the agency will be adding about 40 employees, and this contract will address the problem of retaining newer employees, Perkins said.
“For a while we were a ‘stepping stone’ agency, cut your teeth here and then move on for better pay,” he said. “This contract should help us attract more people to apply. We’re very thankful to the County Commissioners for doing that.”
During the meeting that the Commission approved the agreement, commissioners Brandon Arrington and Ricky Booth both noted their satisfaction that the county’s rescue employees will “get the raises they deserve.”
Said Booth: “I’m certainly happy to see our firefighters now on that updated pay scale.”
