Payroll Deductions – HB 1033 would require local governments to deduct public safety employee association dues from employee’s pay providing the association member agrees to the deduction and providing the association has 50% or more of the eligible members of the department as members of the association. With law enforcement, this would require that the organization have a minimum of 2000 members statewide.  The bill explicitly excludes sheriff’s department personnel. The crossover dead line was May 14 and normally the bill would be dead since it did not pass the House. There has been some discussion that the bill could be reclassified as a Finance bill which would mean that it is still alive but this has not materialized as yet.

 

 

Fire and Rescue Separation Allowances – SB 908 would establish a Special Separation Allowance for career fire fighters and career rescue squad workers. This bill is patterned after law enforcement’s separation allowance with slight differences. This bill would cover retired career fire fighters and rescue squad workers and former fire fighters and rescue squad workers who are permanently disabled in the line of duty. The worker must have completed 30 or more years of creditable years of service or have attained 55 years of age and completed five or more years of service. A disable worker would draw the allowance upon reaching the equivalent of their 30 years of service. The formula is slightly lower than law enforcement but is payable until the worker is eligible for unreduced social security benefits. The formula is 0.57% of the annual equivalent of the base rate of compensation most recently applicable to him or her for each year of creditable service.   Although budgets are stretched at the State and Local Government levels, the PFFPNC will be working to see if there is room for this bill to move.

 

Cooperation Act – HB 1651 The Public Safety Employer-Employee Cooperation Act would grant public fire, EMS and law enforcement employee’s organizations the right to discuss work place issues with their employer that they currently do not have. This legislation would be available when the National Legislation becomes law. The bill would establish minimum standards for local government public safety employee’s organizations for the purpose of meeting with their employers and reaching agreements concerning workplace issues.

Presumptive – SB 930 would create a presumption that cardiovascular disease, certain cancers and certain infectious diseases contracted by local government fire fighters and infectious diseases by local government EMS employees are job-related for purposes of workers’ compensation and disability retirement.

 

25 Year Retirement – HB 1601 This would establish unreduced benefits for career fire fighters and EMS personnel within the Local Governmental Employees Retirement System at 25 years and increase the multiplier to 2.2%.

 

Photoelectric Smoke Detectors – HB 1125 would require that a minimum of one photoelectric smoke detector be installed on every level of a newly built home. It is recognized by almost every authority within the fire protection industry that smoldering fires kill more people than any other fire. While ionization smoke detectors are in most homes in America and North Carolina they have a poor response record to early detection of smoldering fires. On the other hand, the photoelectric smoke detector has consistently proven to detect smoldering fires up to 30 minutes before the ionization detector. This bill did not make the crossover deadline and will be reintroduced next session