Cochrun v. County of San Bernardino

COUGHLIN, J.

This is an appeal from a judgment denying the petition of firemen employed by the Fontana Fire District for a writ of mandate to compel compliance, by the legislative body of that district, with the provisions of section 53250 of the Government Code which require that body to grant each regular member of its fire department “an annual leave of absence from active duty of not less than fifteen consecutive days,” and also “a leave of absence from active duty of not less than four working shifts in each month of service.” Petitioners alleged that the district had not provided the leaves of absence required by the foregoing code provisions. The trial court found to the contrary and entered judgment accordingly.

The subject fire department operates a two-platoon system. Each platoon, respectively, is on duty at the fire station for 24 hours, and off duty for the next 24 hours. The firemen on duty are required to reside on the station premises during a 24-hour shift; average 7 hours of active duty and 17 hours of standby service; and must be available for fire suppression

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service at all times during this shift. The firemen off duty are not required to be on the premises, to remain at any particular place, or to inform the department of their whereabouts; in ease of an emergency are expected to report for firefighting duty if called, unless excused for special hardship reasons; and, during this off-duty shift, may be employed regularly at other occupations, even though such employment requires them to be outside the fire district and thus unavailable for emergency duty. In the event a fireman is called while off duty, and responds to the call, he is paid a specific amount in addition to his regular salary for being called, and a further sum for the time spent on extra duty. Company commanders are authorized to permit off-duty firemen to absent themselves from emergency calls, but are required to have two men available at all times for emergency service.

During each 14, consecutive, calendar-day periods, a fireman is off duty for three consecutive 24-hour shifts, i.e., for 72 hours, so arranged that, under his regular working schedule, the first and last 24 hours thereof would have been off-duty shifts, and the middle 24 hours thereof would have been an on-duty shift. As a matter of practice a fireman is not called for emergency service during his 72-hour off-duty period.