In a bid to try and reduce fatigue and burnout, the BC General Employees Union is calling for an overhaul of the compensation model used to pay wildfire fighters and contractors in the province.
BCGEU Treasurer Paul Finch says wildfire fighters and contractors should be paid a yearly salary instead of being paid by the hour.
“A typical wildfire fighter is making about $26 to $29 an hour. The incentive to work in the season is overtime,” Finch said on NL Newsday.
“The more the entire service is structured around overtime, the less proper rest intervals that people are going to take. The service isn’t really organized to provide those kind of rest intervals that are required.”
Finch says fatigue is a “real issue” for the BC Wildfire Service, telling Radio NL some of their members worked as many as 100 days of overtime out of 120 possible days.
“A lot of this is being driven by the need of what needs to happen on the ground, and the fire scenarios, but we’re looking at typically a 16 hour shift in many cases,” Finch said.
“What we are seeing is a recruitment and retention crisis in a lot of key seniors and also mid-level roles and we’re seeing a reliance in overtime. The problem here is this overtime reliance model is driven by the service not being updated to meet the current demands of fire seasons and its having a deleterious effects.”
In a statement to Radio NL, Ian Meier, the head of the BC Wildfire Service says they’ve had to adapt to working during “recent challenging wildfire seasons” in the province.
“We have been working hard to learn and to improve how we support our staff members in an increasingly challenging environment,” Meier said. “As an emergency management organization, all of our people face unique demands. Our workforce includes wildland firefighters as well as the hundreds of support staff across the Province.”
“Our organization is committed to ongoing conversation. We have a shared goal; the health, safety and well-being of our people is our primary concern.”
Finch says the BCGEU plans to present its open petition letter to the legislative assembly at the end of the fire season.
In addition to an overhauling of the compensation system, the BCGEU is calling on the province to offer wildfire fighters the same pension as other public safety responders, while also fixing “chronic delays” in payroll.
“There is a massive recruitment and retention crisis among fire fighters due to low wages, low pensions and no hazard pay. This means it’s getting harder and harder to train and retain the most skilled firefighters in the province,” the letter said. “The people who are protecting our province from fires deserve better.”
Last month, B.C. Forests Minister Bruce Ralston said a substantial review of the 2023 fire season would include an evaluation of the BC Wildfire Service, which transitioned into a full-time operation ahead of this year’s fire-season.
“I met very recently with senior representatives of the BCGEU and will continue to work with all our partners to support wildland firefighter recruitment, retention and training, and to ensure every BC Wildfire Service member is supported in their work,” Ralston said, in a statement to Radio NL.
“BC Wildfire Service firefighters put their lives on the line to help keep people and communities safe,” Ralston added. “That’s why we are transitioning the BC Wildfire Service to a year-round operation with hundreds more permanent positions to provide stable work for people
“This critical work is underway, but there’s more to do as we continue to respond to record wildfire seasons here in B.C.”
