Faught Volunteer Fire Department’s Assistant Chief testified before the Texas House Business and Industry Committee in support of Representative Gary VanDeaver’s House Bill 318, a bill that would help protect volunteer firefighters and EMS volunteers from workplace discrimination due to tardiness or absence when responding to an emergency call.
Faught VFD Asst. Chief Rick Browning
During his testimony in support of VanDeaver’s HB 318, Faught VFD Asst. Chief Rick Browning used an example from just more than a week ago when some volunteer firefighters did not respond to a structure fire because it was just hours before people traditionally had to be at work.
“There was a structure fire call that came in at 3:20 a.m., and some of our people did not respond because you never know how long a call is going to last,” Browning said. “And it was, theoretically, possible that they couldn’t have gotten home, got ready for work and been there on time.”
He said no volunteer firefighter expects to be paid when either late or absent from work due to an emergency response. Browning referenced states like Louisiana have already included a law similar to HB 318, “and other states have a volunteer first responder protection law.”
He continued saying the bill would further volunteerism, and how volunteers have dropped drastically from previous years.
“We’ve lost people because their work was not flexible enough to let them continue volunteering, and I hope we can reverse that. We are losing so many people that choose not to volunteer in emergency services as time goes on,” he said. “We are losing them because there are so many roadblocks, and this is taking a roadblock away, if passed through the house, to the senate and goes to the governor.”
As the bill was introduced during the previous legislative session, Browning said he is concerned about whether it will pass this round.
“This is not a regulation,” he said. “However, it is more of an accommodation. It is accommodating people to be able to do things and balance between their work and their contribution to the public, to volunteer. This bill really helps the community help themselves. It would allow the community to prosper and allow everyone to do good work – both; work and being an emergency service volunteer.”
According to its text, HB 318 would limit employer’s ability to terminate or suspend “employment of, or in any other manner discriminate against, an employee who is a volunteer emergency responder and who is absent from or late to the employee’s employment because the employee is responding to an emergency in the employee’s capacity as a volunteer emergency responder.”
VanDeaver said the bill came from volunteer firefighters within his district – Texas District 1.
“It will protect volunteer firefighters and EMS volunteers from discrimination at their places of work when they are late or absent due to responding to an emergency,” VanDeaver said in a release. “It creates statutory protections for volunteer responders, while also establishing limits so that businesses are not adversely affected by the volunteer’s tardiness or absence.”
Browning said there are more than 70 percent of volunteer first responders throughout Texas and the U.S.
“If you are driving through Texas, there’s a 70-percent chance that if you need help in a hurry, a volunteer is going to be the first person you see,” he said. “If you don’t start doing things to keep volunteers active, one of these days there won’t be any active volunteers. Then what do you do?”
For more information on House Bill 318 or to read it in its full text, click here.
Photo: Faught VFD Social Media
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