Attorney Deborah Ecker successfully defended the City of Amesbury at arbitration relating to the Fire Department’s decision to assign firefighters rather than permanent lieutenants to the 55 position, which included their sitting in the right front seat of the ladder truck. After hearing, Arbitrator Timothy Hatfield found that the Department did not violate the collective bargaining agreement when the city failed to pay out of grade to firefighters assigned to the 55 position because any new duties assigned were typically short in duration, and under the two hour period required by the collective bargaining agreement for the firefighters to be compensated for work performed out of grade.
