Carroll County Supervisors met for a third time with Pat Gray, the Carroll County Ambulance Director, to discuss his proposal to increase part-time paramedic pay to the base of full-time employees in an effort to alleviate overtime expenses and employee fatigue. Mark Beardmore said he spent a great deal of time on this over the past week and met with the union steward to find they had voted not to issue a letter of support for the increases. He was disappointed in that outcome.
Beardmore added the union members did agree, or had long thought, the part-time paramedics were underpaid. There was talk of changing the proposed amount to 90 or 95 percent of the base pay to reflect where paramedics would fall if moving from part-time to full-time status. They also discussed some anticipated changes in the ambulance department.
Gray added that he understood most paramedics would be willing to have their wages reduced if they were to move to full-time because the benefits would more than offset the wage difference. He added his thoughts on where the pay needed to be.
Gray would also like to see the pay keep pace with future wage adjustments so the gap does not recur. Neil Bock made a motion to raise the paramedic part-time wages to a little less than the current full-time pay at $17.30. The motion died for lack of a second. The board did approve a motion to raise the pay to $17.45 and to follow pace with increases. The scale will be revisited after the 2017 fiscal year. The new rate will go into effect Jan. 1.
