Weird. In Canada, they’re called “volunteer” firefighters, but they get paid for training and for every call they respond to. It’s only like $18/hr or something, but it’s not literally volunteering.
In NZ we get a $300/year “appreciation bonus” or something akin to that. Assuming we attended weekly trainings only and no callouts, it would work out at around $3/hr.
Some of our employers will voluntarily pay for hours we are on callouts when we are otherwise scheduled to work, taking that expense upon themselves, but for most people a callout simply means that we lose wages or need to pull overtime to catch up.
Then FENZ has the gall to try and have volunteer crews act as scabs(at our own cost) while the massively unperaid career staff are striking for livable wages.
Weird. In Canada, they’re called “volunteer” firefighters, but they get paid for training and for every call they respond to. It’s only like $18/hr or something, but it’s not literally volunteering.
In NZ we get a $300/year “appreciation bonus” or something akin to that. Assuming we attended weekly trainings only and no callouts, it would work out at around $3/hr.
Some of our employers will voluntarily pay for hours we are on callouts when we are otherwise scheduled to work, taking that expense upon themselves, but for most people a callout simply means that we lose wages or need to pull overtime to catch up.
Then FENZ has the gall to try and have volunteer crews act as scabs(at our own cost) while the massively unperaid career staff are striking for livable wages.