North Bay firefighters have won an arbitration award that will allow them to work 24 hour shifts.
Fire Chief Grant Love told BayToday that the firefighters wanted the 24 hour shift.
"In bargaining four years ago they (firefighters) asked for a 24 hour shift. They work 24 hours, then they're off for X number of days, then they work 24 hours again, which seems to be the norm across the province."
The arbitration award also affects wages and other terms in the contract.
"It's been a four year arbitration process and the 24 hour shift was just one of about eight outstanding issues that was settled by arbitration," said Love.
The lifestyle benefits of the schedule has been gaining momentum among Canadian firefighters and their unions.
North Bay's Deputy Chief Mike Figliola, used to be Chief of the Greater Toronto Airports Authority and has experience with the 24 hour shifts.
His biggest concern was sleep deprivation.
"We had it going for a couple of years and most of my fears were allayed," he said.
"My original concern was based on medical evidence that working a 24 hour on followed by a 24 hour shift off followed by a second 24 hour shift on, leads to sleep deprivation.
"We implemented a system at the airport where you had a minimum of 48 hours off between successive 24 hour shifts and that seemed to clear out any concerns about sleep deprivation."
"I think it can work but you've got to monitor health concerns, training concerns to ensure training does get done, and realize in the event that you have a very busy schedule that you have to be concerned about how do you rotate the guys out to bring in fresh crews."
Generally younger firefighters are for the 24 hours shift, because working just seven days a month allows for more time to do other things.
Older ones don't like it because their bodies can’t cope with the lack of sleep.
Typically, firefighters on 24-hour shifts get the chance to get some sleep, but platoon chiefs won't have that luxury as they have to be awake the entire 24 hours to monitor what’s going on.
Figliola estimates that about two thirds of the staff have 20 years or less of service, with the other third, up to 30 years of service.
The arbitration award says the shift changes should start in January, but Figliola says he's waiting for direction from Chief Love and city staff about whether that can be accomplished.
But Figliola thinks he can make it work.
"You have to have communication. If there are concerns you need to make sure they are dealt with and addressed from both sides.
"The illusion is they are working less hours." he explained. "No, they are working the same amount of hours they're just compressed so you need to deal with your training in that compressed time frame, which can be challenging."
