Attorney Brian M. Maser recently secured a victory for the Town of Chelmsford in an arbitration challenging a decision by the Fire Chief to place several firefighters on unpaid administrative leave for having expired EMT licenses. The Union’s grievance alleged lack of just cause for the action as neither the collective bargaining agreement nor a Department rule required maintenance of a license as a condition of employment. At arbitration, the Town argued that it was clear that maintenance of an EMT license was an open and obvious condition of Department employment. In support of this argument, the Town presented evidence that new hires are required to have an EMT license within their first year of employment, that Department members respond to all medical calls for service and that the Department pays for all costs associated with employee’s obtaining and maintaining an EMT license. The Fire Chief testified that the Department annually advised members of EMT recertification deadlines and there had never been a past instance where a Department member had allowed an EMT license to lapse. The Town also offered the actions of the grievants in reporting and apologizing to the Chief for the lapse of the licenses as evidence that maintenance of an EMT license was a condition of continued employment.
