Sean Collins Walsh
The Philadelphia Inquirer
（MCT）
PHILADELPHIA — The Philadelphia firefighters union recently encouraged itshundreds of unvaccinated members根据询问者获得的联合备忘录，每次要求他们在上班前完成每周的每周Covid-19测试，请提交八个小时的加班费。
联盟主席迈克·布雷斯南（Mike Bresnan）说，上周消防部门拒绝了国际消防战士协会当地人22号成员提交的加班要求。他说，但是工会现在正在对这个问题进行劳动申诉。
Local 22 fought strenuously, but ultimately unsuccessfully, against MayorJim Kenney’s months-long effort to institute a vaccine mandatefor unionized city employees that took full effect last month.
布雷斯南说，以当地22代表的2300名消防员，护理人员和EMT中，约有700名获得了豁免权，几乎所有人都声称他们有宗教信仰，以防止他们接受Covid-19-19疫苗。
布雷斯南说，对授权的一项仲裁协议使纽约市可以为受制于授权的雇员进行强制性测试，并要求雇员每周进行测试，然后再上班。
Because a separate department rule instructs firefighters to file a minimum of eight hours of overtime if they are required to work on days off, the union is contending that its members are entitled to eight hours of pay if they test for COVID-19 and upload their test results to the city website on days off, he said.
布雷斯南说：“不管是什么 - 15分钟，我的时间超出了20分钟的时间才能报告工作 - 您必须付钱给我们。”“我们不是要贪婪。我们只是想遵守规则，就像他们想遵守规则一样。我们为什么要为此而看到消防部门的资金被吸收？”
近年来，消防部门每年在加时赛上花费数千万美元，导致宾夕法尼亚州政府间合作局的一系列关键报告，这是一个负责监督城市财务的州议会。根据PICA的最新报告，在2022财政年度的前三个季度，该部门的加班费为1.858亿美元。
Kenney spokesperson Kevin Lessard said that allowing eight hours of overtime pay for at-home testing “would impact the City’s overtime costs — especially in departments, like Fire, that have a significant number of employees with approved exemptions.”
“这是城市的立场，同时进行家庭测试和记录该测试的结果是de minimisand doesn’t significantly impose upon an employee’s schedule,” Lessard said in a statement. “For this reason, employees required to test at-home are not compensated for their time taking these tests and logging the results.”
The union’s opposition to the mandate has continued despite evidence that the vaccine has greatly reduced deaths among people who contract the virus, and despite tragedy having stuck their own ranks.
Firefighter埃里克·戈尔（Eric Gore）于2020年去世after contracting the coronavirus on duty, and the passing of firefighterJohn Evans, who died of COVID-19last year, was classified as a line-of-duty death.
Some firefighters were placed on leave last month when the mandate took effect, with the potential of being fired if they didn’t come in compliance with the policy within 30 days. But Bresnan said that so far no firefighters have been fired, with some of those who were in jeopardy of being terminated getting vaccinated and others getting exemption requests approved.
布雷斯南说，肯尼“将自己陷入了角落”，尽管没有合法地允许工人在宗教信仰阻止他们接受疫苗的情况下迫使授权。
“Their easy way out was they’ll just approve them,” he said, adding that his union’s members have secured religious exemptions with very few exceptions by citing scripture: “I guess there’s stuff in the Bible, the Quran, or the Torah.”
The city requires workers applying for exemptions from the mandate to sign affidavits explaining why their religious beliefs prevent them from getting vaccinated.
“Our obligation is to follow the law, which allows for exemptions for sincere religious beliefs,” Lessard said. “The City’s exemption program was appropriately designed to accommodate employees with those sincere religious beliefs.”
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