{"id":323809,"date":"2025-10-22T12:28:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-22T12:28:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/323809\/"},"modified":"2025-10-22T12:28:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T12:28:09","slug":"st-johns-county-firefighters-set-to-meet-with-county-leaders-to-continue-push-for-reduced-work-hours","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/323809\/","title":{"rendered":"St. Johns County firefighters set to meet with county leaders to continue push for reduced work hours"},"content":{"rendered":"

ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. <\/strong> \u2013 Firefighters in St. Johns County are making another push to reduce their work hours, and they will be back at the negotiating table Wednesday with county leaders.<\/p>\n

The St. Johns County Firefighters Union said current staffing levels and mandatory overtime are pushing first responders to the brink \u2014 and now they\u2019re hoping a new work schedule will bring relief.<\/p>\n

RELATED | Burned Out: St. Johns County Fire Union pushes for healthier work-life balance<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

Wednesday\u2019s meeting is part of an ongoing effort to reduce firefighter workweeks from 56 hours to 42 hours.<\/p>\n

\u201cThroughout the state and throughout the country, everyone is switching to this. Every single week, departments are announcing they are moving to this. SO if departments all over are able to do it, I know we can as well,\u201d said Dave Stevens, president of the St. Johns County Firefighters Union.<\/p>\n

St. Johns County Fire Union President David Stevens (Jesse Hanson\/News4JAX photojournalist)<\/p>\n

Stevens also said reducing work hours will help reduce injuries and accidents.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis will save firefighters\u2019 lives,\u201d said Stevens.<\/p>\n

Currently, many local firefighters are working 24-hour shifts with mandatory overtime, sometimes causing 48-hour shifts with little downtime. Stevens said the schedule \u2014 combined with the county\u2019s population growth and rising emergency call volume \u2014 is causing serious fatigue.<\/p>\n

RELATED: \u2018You think about it every day\u2019: Brother of firefighter who died by suicide shares story to prevent future tragedies<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

Nearly $5M for recruitment<\/b><\/p>\n

In the county\u2019s newly passed budget, roughly $4.9 million is set aside for firefighter recruitment and retention. The union says those funds could help support the proposed schedule change.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose dollars can go into what we need for year one to start the process of the 42-hour work week,\u201d Stevens said.<\/p>\n

While contract negotiations aren\u2019t limited by what\u2019s in the budget, the union believes the funding opens a path forward.<\/p>\n

Firefighters offer to forgo raises<\/b><\/p>\n

To help cover costs, Stevens told News4JAX reporter Briana Brownlee<\/a> that firefighters are even offering to give up scheduled raises.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are actually offering to forgo any cost-of-living increase for the next two years to help the taxpayers fund the 42-hour work week,\u201d Stevens said.<\/p>\n

That means firefighters would not receive the 7% pay raise recently approved for all county employees. <\/p>\n

Starting pay for a firefighter in St. Johns County is currently $17.65 per hour, or roughly $52,000 annually \u2014 and that would remain unchanged under the proposed schedule.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis isn\u2019t about raises. It\u2019s about health and safety,\u201d Stevens said.<\/p>\n

News4JAX will continue to follow developments from the negotiation process and provide updates as more information becomes available.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2025 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. \u2013 Firefighters in St. Johns County are making another push to reduce their work…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":323810,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5136],"tags":[5229,6526,3188,723,7310,12013,14638,161682,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-323809","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-firefighters","10":"tag-fl","11":"tag-florida","12":"tag-jacksonville","13":"tag-morning-show","14":"tag-st-johns-county","15":"tag-st-johns-county-firefighters-union","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-united-states-of-america","18":"tag-unitedstates","19":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","20":"tag-us","21":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115417822406779232","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323809","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=323809"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323809\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/323810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=323809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=323809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=323809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}