OEMC Overtime
A ten-hour-a-day "power shift" has cut out-of-control overtime at Chicago's 911 emergency center by 20 percent, even though 131 vacancies remain, aldermen were told Monday.
[...] On Monday, aldermen were told that the costly overtime problem was being resolved by having some employees work the 10-hour-a-day, four-day-a-week “power shift,” which overlaps with the standard eight-hour shift worked by others.
Testifying at City Council budget hearings, Ray Orozco, executive director of the Office of Emergency Management and Communications, also revealed that his department is taking a major hit.
Twenty-three employees are being laid off and 74 of the 131 vacant jobs are being permanently eliminated. The 311 center is losing 19 employees.
“Those vacancies aren’t on the operations floor that takes phone calls or dispatches,” Orozco said.
Is someone somewhere going to reevaluate call taking some day? All of these calls that never ought to be taken, never ought to be dispatched, and never ought to be responded to because they aren't police matters?
Labels: department issues
posted by SCC at 12:01 AM
16 Comments:
overtime is being granted to oemc dispatchers on the power watch like an open faucet. they make double time on their second days off. i have seen one of the checks with 85hrs of overtime in a pay period. you would never believe the city was in a budget crisis.
I saw a fax message that came out at 2030 hrs. on 27 Oct. All units were to send a messenger to the mail room to pick up packets of information as to what civilian employees were being eliminated. Those employees are to be notified on 28 Oct. of the bad news.
Bite your tongue. We are already constantly complaining about the 10-15 Pco's (1's and 2's) who are detailed off the floor to various administration positions. Including but not limited to..investigations, tape review and being so and so's lackey , secretary or assistant. That's not even including the 6 dispatchers assigned to training, even when there isn't anyone being trained.
Those guys get two pay grades above me and all the overtime they want while I wrestle with shitheads in the lockup and smell ass and feet all day? They get no sympathy from me.
WTF, I was going to retire from this circus and apply to that circus. Looks like I'll be applying at HomeDepot or Walmart. Be safe out there boys and girls.
These calltakers suck. We get no details on important calls such as shots fired calls. We get dispatched to 70year old has chest pains. They make everyone anon without asking if they wish to leave their name or number. If we had the right info before we got there we might be able to catch the bad guy as he flees past us as we are pulling up to write paper!
Overtime is being offered to every watch like an open faucet. There are sign up sheets to supplement all watches by anyone who can occupy a chair. Some calltakers and dispatchers have not taken a day off siince March and some work 16 hours a day on a double time day One dispatcher was heard to say that she can't get along without a $4,000.00 paycheck every payday!!- the worst though is mandatory overtime which occurs almost 3 times a week and especially for the Saturday night midnight watch - not unusual to mandate 15-20 people for and extra 4 hours from 3rd watch to cover midnights - this is because almost every Saturday night someone has a party and they all attend!! Managemant dosen't think anything is wrong about this. No budget crisis here.
Wow! The Mayors reporter is at it again!!! Don't believe it. The Power shift has not cut overtime. Overtime at the OEMC has increased at rates unbelievable since they ousted the police out of there and didn't fill those spots. Continue with annual attrition (retirees and people who are just plain burned out) the need has not been met at all. Past management at the OEMC has not delt with this issue as they should. The Budget office has hamstringed us at every turn. So what happens, overtime!
What is not being told is how much overtime is caused by cancelling of lunches and or breaks, cancelling of day off, mandating us to stay 2-4 hours after our shift is supposed to be over (yep, that's right, we don't get to go home on time either or get a lunch). These practices happen at the OEMC on a regular basis, for first and 3rd watches you can pretty much expect not to get a lunch on weekends......they let you know in roll call.
CPD isn't the only group that has issues, we have our own burdens to bear as well. For me, while bearing those burdens, my main priority is to keep you all safe and have you go home after 8.
The only reason the dispatch operations floor of the "OEMC" runs at ALL is because of overtime, whether it be voluntary or mandatory. EVERY DAY on 3rd watch alone they have to hire at least 10-15 calltakers to work their days off just to bring the staffing up to minimum levels. Even after hiring all those people to come in to work overtime, operations floor workers STILL have their breaks and lunches cancelled on on almost daily basis. Then on the weekends they are often mandated to stay another four hours onto midnights after their own grueling 8.5 hour shift ends. In an effort to cut overtime, management has tried staggering start times, re-implementing those "power watches" in August 2007 that were removed in January 2005, and cutting out most elective time due aside from furloughs (time due which is almost non-existent in the first place). The bottom line is, no matter how you shuffle around too few people, it is still TOO FEW PEOPLE!! Hire some damn employees!!!!
No OT on homicides in the D units - just hand it off to the next watch.
Oh, all's well that is - unless it's a "heater" aka news paper type deal.
Lotsa luck on those clearance rates, bad as they are, they ain't getting better.
Good going J-Farce!
maybe there are so many stripped PO's that they can staff it with them
Most dispatchers that work at OEMC are a joke. None of them take their job serious. WORTHLESS!!!! Not even qualified to work at Walmart.
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It's bullshit-the reason overtime is under control is because the finance division is playing games with the overtime hours. OEMC employees are shorted on their hours on a consistent basis and you are required to fight to get your hours corrected. If they don't get them corrected in a reasonable length of time, you lose it. They also have employees who have been awarded judgements by an arbitrator because of grievances that are several years old and the city is still refusing to pay them their time and restore their seniority, and their union refuses to do anything about it. They are being screwed by the Mayor much worse than the Police.
These call takers make everyone anonymous. I called 911 because the couple across from me were fighting and the call taker didn't even ask me for my name and when I called back the second time I had to tell them not to make me anonymous. What a joke! No wonder most of our jobs are "anonymous".
Unfortunately there are some dispatchers who work overtime all the time who have no business working there to begin with. Everyone knows who they are and they're worthless ghetto ass pieces of shit who only contribute to the crime level in the city once they get home.
Yes, the majority of calltakers do suck because there's barely any rollcall training like there used to be if any at all. These are the same calltakers who don't ask the pertinent questions or even attempt to, and bitch and moan to a superior when a dispatcher asks them anything important that would help the units who are responding to a job.
If all the dispatchers on the floor get their lunches canceled in one day, that amounts to 26 hours at time and a half of overtime in one day. And that doesn't include the calltakers who get mandated. Do the math and see if it wouldn't be cheaper to just hire more people. The OEMC has turned into a joke and apparently few of us who work there see it for what it is. If the operations floor were adequately staffed, half of the people on the 4th floor would not be there. They NEED the floor to be short of the necessary personnel in order to keep their jobs.
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