A longtime town firefighter recently filed a claim seeking payment for all hours worked as a volunteer over the last three decades, igniting potentially lengthy negotiations at a time when Waterford and other towns are shaking up fire services to address increasing concerns over manpower and labor laws.
In an April 16 letter to the town, obtained by The Day in a Freedom of Information Act request, Kevin Ziolkovski formally requested "financial compensation for all hours worked as a volunteer firefighter ... from Jan. 1, 1989, to the present."
Ziolkovski, a 57-year-old Quaker Hill Fire Co. volunteer since 1979 who's worked part-time shifts since the early 1980s, cited potential violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act, the 1938 law that shields workers from missing out on compensation by barring town employees from performing "volunteer services for the same entity by which they are employed."