For emergency personnel, Labor Day is just another day of labor
For most people, Labor Day is a well-earned day off and one last chance to celebrate summer. That means that most government institutions, schools, banks and some retail outlets are closed, and those that aren’t are open for reduced hours.
But fires, violent crimes and health emergencies don’t take any days off. For most workers in emergency services, Labor Day is a day of work.
“I would say it’s just another day,” said Ashley Kort, an EMT with Quality EMS. “It just feels like another regular day.”
Quality EMS — which covers six municipalities in the southern part of Butler County — sent its usual two crews to work Monday, Sept. 1, although administrative staffers did get to enjoy a day off.
“No matter what the holiday, we don’t change staffing,” said Conrad Pfeifer, executive director of Quality EMS. “On holidays, accidents can happen as easily as they can on a Wednesday in August.”
The same was largely true for the Butler city’s Bureau of Fire, where nearly the entirety of the force showed up for work Monday. The only exceptions were Chief Christopher Switala — who is considered part of administration, although he is on call — and one firefighter who had to be off and it just happened to fall on Labor Day.
“By federal law, we can only work so many hours in a 21-day period,” said Capt. Richard Walters. “He has to be off today so he doesn’t go over the 21-day allotted time for fair labor.”
Although Butler City is one of only two professional, nonvolunteer fire departments in Butler County (the other being the VA Butler Fire and Emergency Services), volunteer fire departments also were on duty on Monday. Several fire departments spent a chunk of their Labor Day putting out a garage fire in Fairview Township.
One factor that takes the sting out of working on a government holiday is that most of these emergency workers will see a little extra in their paycheck.
“We get time and a half, I believe. It’s definitely more than our regular amount.” Kort said. “I honestly always try and work on holidays because of the holiday pay.”
“It’s a fairly typical day,” said Matthew Gordon, an EMT for Quality EMS. “We’ve had a couple of emergency responses. We had a couple of nonemergency transports.”
While Gordon is only in his first year with Quality, he has previous experience working in both food service and the medical field, both of which also send people to work on Labor Day.
“If it’s the day I’m supposed to work, food service and the hospital have to function as well,” Gordon said.
Hospital systems such as UPMC, which operates Passavant Hospital in Cranberry Township, must also keep busy during the holiday.
“Labor Day is a paid holiday,” said Karen Beardsley, a spokesperson for the UPMC health system. “Various hospital staff will work to ensure that our patients continue to receive the highest quality care, which is a true reflection of the mission and values UPMC upholds.”
Kort said that the Quality EMS staff showing up for work will make the most out of the holiday.
“We’ll plan on cooking out on Monday if we have the time,” Kort said. “It depends on people calling 911, of course, but we plan to cook out on Labor Day. I know when I’ve worked Thanksgiving and Christmas, we always cook a big meal just to make it a nice day, because it is a holiday.”
