The Anne Arundel County firefighters union is seeking arbitration with the county, accusing County Executive Steve Schuh’s administration of not releasing information related to overtime underpayments to firefighters.
The International Association of Firefighters Local 1563 filed grievances accusing the county of not releasing its overtime formula or explaining how some firefighters received smaller paychecks than expected based on overtime hours. A letter advancing the grievance to arbitration was sent to the county Oct. 1. A county spokesman called the union’s decision election-year politics.
“Our question is, very simply, what time records is the county keeping, and what arithmetic formula is it using to compute overtime pay,” union President Joe Addivinola wrote in the letter. County firefighters — and other county staff — are due for reimbursement after the county discovered an error in overtime calculations dating back 17 years. But the firefighters union said the county had not released its overtime formula calculations nor had it explained why some firefighters were underpaid overtime after the long-running formula error was fixed.