ROANOKE, Va. – The Roanoke Fire Fighters Association spoke at Monday’s city council meeting to address the proposed Public Safety Pay Plan before the official budget is voted on in May.
The proposed plan suggests that newly promoted officers will take a pay cut rather than a pay raise at the time of their promotion.
In addition, current high-ranking officers may even make less than current firefighters within the department.
“The way it’s being implemented is not fair and it’s going to cause a lot of pay disparities among the ranks,” said Andy Foley with the Roanoke Firefighters Association. “We’re hoping that city council will at least listen to our concerns and we believe we do have a plan that will make the plan fair to everybody in our organization.”
This plan is projected to negatively impact at least 30% of Fire-EMS personnel upon adoption and at least 50% upon upcoming promotion after the plan’s adoption.