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The temptation of mandatory retirement |
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Written by Peter Sells
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April 20, 2011 – In the late 1980s, I accepted a temporary assignment as a firefighter/dispatcher in the communications centre attached to what was then the headquarters fire hall of the Toronto Fire Department. I thought it would be a great way to learn about an important aspect of fire operations, and it was. On any given day or night, I was part of the process of getting apparatuses and personnel to emergency scenes, arranging fill-in apparatuses to close service gaps left by major alarms, co-ordinating information with allied agencies, and providing information as requested by incident commanders. As a firefighter who had not yet reached first-class rate, working as a dispatcher was quite an opportunity to meet all of the senior officers of the department and see them in action.
One of the things that I found a bit dubious was the assignment of older firefighters, who had had heart problems, to the communications centre. I understand and support the idea of accommodation of firefighters for whom active firefighting operations is no longer medically advisable; but the assumption that all other duties are necessarily less stressful is untested and dangerous. As an example, one afternoon toward the end of a typical day shift, we had a sudden rush of emergency calls that lasted more than 90 minutes as a spring storm front moved across the city. In that hour and a half, we dispatched almost twice the daily average of 100 calls, one after the other, in rapid succession. As our relief personnel showed up for shift change, they each had to stand by beside us until we could take a brief break in radio traffic to let them sit down and plug in. Once we had been relieved, there was no time for the usual conversation and camaraderie, since those who were now on duty were as fully occupied as we had just been. So I stood there for a few minutes, then went down to my car and drove home.
This is the weird part; halfway home a song came on the radio that I had heard dozens or hundreds of times before, the Temptations’ version of Papa Was A Rolling Stone. Suddenly, as that iconic bass line kept thumping across my radio, I found myself bawling my eyes out. What the hey? OK, so the poor guy never knew his father; too bad – so sad; what the hell is wrong with me?
In retrospect it is clear that I had not had a chance to resolve the stress of the shift, and it found an outlet in the song.
So let me bring this into the present; over the last decade, the concept of mandatory retirement at age 65 in Canadian society has dissolved. This has been due to certain provisions of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and some demographic realities of greater numbers of active and employable seniors. Despite the retirement of mandatory retirement, many employment contracts stipulate that firefighters cannot remain in active fire/rescue operations past a specified age, that age usually being 60. As a result, some departments are faced with the task of accommodating firefighters into positions in other areas of the fire service. The same assumption is being made here that was made in the example I gave above – that any and all positions other than fire fighting are inherently less stressful on a sexagenarian body. I am not saying that this assumption is correct or incorrect, just that it has not been proven and, therefore, is potentially dangerous.
Accommodating firefighters as they reach the age of 60 may be more difficult in a smaller service, where there are fewer options for placement. And, so far, this has affected only career firefighters who are under negotiated contracts. It is not hard to see that a volunteer service would have even fewer options, and would face greater pressures to leave aging firefighters in their positions given the ever-present problems with volunteer recruitment and retention.
So here are the problems as I see them: the stresses of a fire response are the same in a big city, small town or rural village; a 60-plus year-old human body does not know the employment model of its occupant; neither does that body differentiate between the stresses of fire fighting, fire training or emergency communications.
Retirement from fire/rescue operations at age 60 is one method of protecting the health of the firefighter, but a more comprehensive strategy with a broader focus is required.
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Written by Eian Gill on 2011-06-15 20:05:33
I could not agree with you more, communications is an inappropriate job for senior firefighters. I worked in communications in the 70’s it was much simpler then and I was younger and quicker. To think of making the move back into something that has become so technical is foolish and far more stressful than the job I have done for over 30 years.
The issue we have to understand is that age 60 retirement has nothing to do with the well being of firefighters but all to do with gaining leverage on municipalities to force them into providing better pension benefits. The AMO identified that issue on there website in April of this year. Unions are turning their backs on as much as 1/3 of it’s members to secure benefits for their younger majorities.
The actual statistics on the USFA website show that the most dangerous and highest number of heart attack deaths occur between age 41 and 50. The Espey tribunal were given that information but it was quickly swept under the rug as it did not suit the end that the OPPFA were attempting to achieve. The Espey tribunal were give 21 year old medical information to achieve the result. 75% of the deaths in the FEMA report the tribunal were given were volunteers and yet the volunteer firefighters were not covered in bill181. Volunteer firefighters do not have pension plans so are ‘irrelevant’ in this matter.
If indeed heart attack on duty is a bona fide occupational requirement and not discrimination based on medical condition then fire departments should only be hiring female firefighters as they have a lower rate of heart attack than males. Given the actual statistics less than one, over 60 year old firefighter, both full time and volunteer ,die in the line of duty each year. As 75 to 85% of the firefighters in Ontario are volunteer it seems to make this legislation little more than age discrimination.
When I joined the fire service in the 70’s the firefighters were ‘old men’. They had fought a war, there were very few air packs, they smoked heavily, ate poorly, and did not work out. They were born prior to the invention of anti-biotics, x-rays would burn a hole through you and there was no occupational health and safety act. In the past 20 years heart disease has dropped by 50%. Since age 60 clauses were placed in contracts in the late 60’s life expectancy has gone up by over 10 years and I suspect that is even more for firefighters as we take less foolish chances such as breathing toxins.
Several capable firefighters have approached me recently and expressed a desire to work on past 60. What shocked me was that they were actually almost 60. The knowledge and information they carry is irreplaceable, we just don’t see the types of fires that we saw in the past. They tell me they will be forced to retire with less than a full pension. In the Espey case and when lobbing for bill 181 the term “an unreduced pension” was use. This by no means is a full pension and could be as little as $12,000, well below the poverty line.
It is hard to believe this is anything else but discrimination, when the City of Toronto has age 65 retirement, OAFC has said that several other municipalities have firefighters over 60 and report no problem and the actual current US statistic show that heart attacks on duty go down after age 50 and remain down even at age 60.
As municipal budgets become more strained if bill 181 is used to force better pensions 5 to 10 years down the road, the solution to manage costs will be to reduce the number of firefighters. Those reduced numbers will place all firefighters at risk and municipalities will phase out full time firefighters for volunteers as they do not have pension benefits and are able to work past age 60
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