Wednesday, April 07, 1999
Dispute between dispatchers, county reaches board
BY TOM O'NEILL
The Cincinnati Enquirer
BATAVIA — The issue of privatizing or subcontracting emergency services has pitted Clermont County officials against dispatchers in a dispute that has reached the Ohio Employment Relations Board.
County officials say that they're always looking at ways to be more cost-efficient and that using the private sector for a wide range of government-provided services is a growing trend.
The Fraternal Order of Police/Ohio Labor Council (FOP/OLC), which is representing the 19 dispatchers whose jobs might be shifted to a private employer, says that the county has no such legal right and that the public's safety should be a higher priority than cost cutting.
A 13-page fact-finding report issued this week by the employment relations board recommended that the county not adopt the plan but also criticized the dispatchers' stance as “too constraining.”
The FOP/OLC agreed to that overall assessment, but the county rejected it.
The two sides expressed hope that a follow-up meeting in the next few weeks will produce an agreement. If not, the state employment relations board will begin a conciliation report. Its findings will be binding.
Meanwhile, the dispatchers have been working under conditions of a contract that expired Jan. 1, 1998.
“What the public should keep in mind is the selling of emergency dispatch to a private company will seriously compromise the level of service,” Deborah A. McCormick, staff representative for the FOP/OLC, said Tuesday.
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