FDNY Puts New Limits on OT

The FDNY announced yesterday that they would put a ceiling on how much overtime their firefighters could earn. The new cap will limit them to 81 and 1/4 hours per quarter, or 325 hours a year, for certain tasks that do not involve fighting fires or rescuing people. The change should also save on pension costs as well, with firefighters using overtime racked up in their final years to boost the salary used to compute how much their pension payments would be upon retiring. The Post says that with the new regulations, the earnings FDNY's top overtime earner last year would leave him "$65,407 less than he actually pulled in working in the Mayor's Office of Emergency Management and teaching mandated courses in equal employment opportunity." They were also able to find some disgruntled anonymous firefighters unhappy with the decision. One told the paper, "Closing firehouses is ridiculous, and so is cutting back overtime. Something is going to happen soon, and they're going to blame us."