911 Labor Woes Surface

Are union contract-mandated scheduling requirements hampering the 911 call center’s ability to run effectively, including having bilingual call operators available 24 hours a day, seven days a week?

Or is the department simply not doing enough to recruit, hire, and train Spanish-speaking employees?

Those questions emerged Tuesday night during a two-hour public workshop hosted by the Board of Alders Public Safety Committee.

The virtual workshop, held online via Zoom, focused on the day-to-day operations of the city’s Public Safety Communications department, also known as Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP).

That’s the call center based out of police headquarters at 1 Union Ave. where — every hour of the day, every day of the year — city operators answer 911 and non-emergency calls for service, and then dispatch police, fire, and medical emergency response personnel as appropriate.

One of the most heated exchanges of the night occurred roughly half an hour in to the workshop.

PSAP Director George Peet and Deputy Director Jeffrey Patton said that, thanks to the current Local 884 city clerical workers union contract, the department does not always have a Spanish-speaking operator on call to answer 911 and non-emergency calls for service.

They said that’s because the contract requires the department to bid work based on seniority, rather than skill.

So, depending on how the senior-level operators and dispatchers choose their work in any given bid (which usually covers a three or four-month stretch of time, in advance of which department heads, supervisors, and employees pick assignments), and depending on those employees’ language skills, there could be a time when a particular eight-hour shift does not have someone capable of answering the phone in Spanish.

“Give me a break,” Quinnipiac Meadows Alder and Public Safety Committee Chair Gerald Antunes said in disbelief. ​“I have a serious problem with not having a Spanish-speaking person on shift every day. … What are you doing to resolve that problem?”

Patton: 24/7 Bilingual Coverage Exists, Gap Possibility Persists

In a follow up interview Wednesday morning, Patton clarified for the Independent that the department does indeed have a Spanish-speaking employee on call for every single shift in the current bid, which runs through the end of April.

He said the department has seven employees currently in the role of 911 Operator/Dispatcher Bilingual (Spanish). That’s a specific job classification that has a separate testing protocol than that used for non-bilingual staffers, he said.

In addition to those seven, he said, the department has an additional seven operators who speak Spanish but are not technically classified as Bilingual Operators.

That brings the total number of Spanish-speaking 911 call takers in the department to 14 out of a total of 39. The department currently has five vacancies among the 911 operator/dispatcher positions.

“The bid we are currently operating under provides for a minimum of one Spanish speaking operator/dispatcher around the clock, 24/7,” Patton told the Independent on Wednesday.

This is before considering vacation time, sick time, and other time off. He also stressed that there’s no way of knowing when a Spanish speaking caller might call, and when a Spanish speaking operator may be out of the room on a break or performing other duties, such as working on an emergency dispatch to a house fire, for example.

The bilingual operator conversation was prompted Tuesday night by Fair Haven Alder Jose Crespo telling the PSAP director and deputy director that he recently helped one of his constituents call the non-emergency police line after she was involved in a car crash. She pressed 2 when prompted by the automated call response system to indicate she wanted to speak to a Spanish-speaking operator. Crespo said that the operator who got back to her told her that there was no one available at that time who could speak Spanish.

Patton said Wednesday that the possibility exists under the current union contract language for there to be a bid in which a Spanish-speaking operator is not available, because seniority takes precedence over skill level.

“We would prefer to have distribution control over the skills that are in the department,” he said. ​“I would very much [prefer] to say we’re bidding based on skills.” That’s going to be a focus of upcoming contract negotiations with the union, he said.

He said that he believes the department’s leadership and the leadership of Local 884 have the same goals ​“in trying to improve performance, morale, and workplace environment for all of the people in this department. I think that’s something we can accomplish.”

Union Prez: Issue Lies In Recruiting, Hiring, Training

When asked for her response to Patton’s and Peet’s contract-related concerns Wednsday morning, Local 884 President Lore Lichtenberg pointed to the department’s responsibility to recruit, hire, and train for positions that already exist.

The ​“the lack of bilingual personnel is NOT a union issue,” she wrote by email.

“Management has the right to direct the workforce. Local 884 agreed to the position of bilingual operator/dispatchers in September 2013. The city is responsible to recruit, hire, train bilingual employees to meet their operational needs. 

“The current Eligibility List for Operator Dispatchers is #20 – 09E (extended until 2022, there are only 16 ranks on the list), the last time bilingual operators were tested was back in 2018 (#18 – 31) and only 6 people [passed] the test.”

Alders pressed on that very issue of recruitment Tuesday night.

“Is there any effort to do any recruiting in Hispanic communities?” Antunes asked.

Peet said that, at this moment, ​“there is no effort to reach out specifically to the Spanish-speaking community” other than advertising relevant civil service exams as bilingual exams.

The alders encouraged the department to reach out to community management teams and canvass graduating local high school seniors as a way to increase the department’s ranks of city residents and Spanish speakers. Peet welcomed the suggestions.

Peet: Rotation Would Stop Employee Exodus

Peet (pictured) raised another contract-related concern that he says has driven New Haven-trained call takers out of their jobs and towards new work in the suburbs.

It’s not just relatively low pay and significantly higher stress that New Haven 911 operators have to deal with, he said. It’s also a contract-mandated work schedule that assigns time off based on seniority.

Days off, just like work assignments, are bid by current employees, he said.

Because of the seniority preference, call operators might not see a Saturday and Sunday off for their first 10 years on the job. Instead, they’ll be stuck with Tuesday and Wednesday off, and weekend and holiday work.

“Other municipality work shifts allow for rotating” schedules, he said, regardless of senior. In such setups, ​“eventually, you know you’re going to see a weekend off, you’re going to see a holiday off.”

Not so in New Haven.

“In my mind, what is the most fair and equitable thing for the entire workforce, from most senior to most junior, everyone is able to enjoy a weekend or a holiday off with family and friends.

“The way it is right now, they don’t.”

In a Wednesday morning email, Lichtenberg pushed back against that assertion by Peet as well.

“The union disbelieves management’s assertion that the reason for turnover is lack of weekends off,” she wrote.

She said that the job of operator/dispatcher is not the job for someone who desires a 9 – 5, Monday-Friday work lifestyle. 

“This job demands 24/7/365 coverage. One enters the profession knowing this requirement.”

She also criticized Peet’s suggestion that a rotating schedule that assigns work Monday through Friday one week, Tuesday through Saturday the next week, Wednesday through Sunday the following week, etc., would be a better setup.

“Due [to] the critical nature of this position employees must be mandated to stay an extra shift if their replacement does not arrive,’ she wrote. ​“Please tell me how parents with children at home are to arrange day care? This rotating schedule works for the independent, but difficult for heads of households. Every public service job has some restrictions when one is permitted to take time off. It’s the nature of work.”

At Tuesday evening’s hearing, West Rock/West Hills Alder Honda Smith also pressed Peet on this issue of scheduling and seniority.

Do you think that someone who’s been with the department for 20 years should have their times ​“changed for someone just coming into the department?” she asked. ​“If someone has worked for the department for 20 years, and someone’s just coming in to the department, you don’t think that seniority should rule?”

“Seniority should rule for many things,” Peet replied. ​“But for the best management of the department and best management for fair and equitable” treatment for all employees, rotating days off would be the ​“better option.”

He said seniority would still bring employees which shift they’d like to work: whether 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., or 4 p.m. to midnight, or midnight to 8 a.m.

“But days off is where we lose folks.”

The current Local 884 contract expired last June. Peet and Patton said that city negotiations with the union over a new contract are in the works.

Patton told the Independent that roughly two-thirds of the department’s calls come in to the police department’s non emergency number, which is (203) 946‑6316, rather than to 911.

In January, he said, the department received 8,862 911 calls and 14,525 non-emergency number calls. And in February, the department received 8,778 911 calls, and 12,963 non emergency number calls.