48/96 Schedule - Home Page

This WEB page is the report from the 48/96 Committee to the membership. This web page will also serve as the infomation page for the 48/96 motion: 

Motion 19-2: Move that the AFA educate the Fire Chief and Command Staff on a 48/96 work schedule and lobby the Fire Chief and Command Staff to conduct a trial within the Austin Fire Department of the 48/96 work schedule.

Motion by Kyle Melton / Second by Christian Ward

This AFA Research Committee was created by a membership motion brought before the membership and determined by online vote.

48/96 Committee Members:

Mark Bridges / Antwaine Hobbs / Brad Landi / Ed Lee / Kyle Melton / Victor Mena / Daniel Miller / Stephen Truesdell / Christian Ward 

The Process:

The AFA committee has been formed to research the pros and cons of changing to a 48/96 shift schedule. The committee will make recommendations to the Eboard. The Eboard will publish this committee report to the membership for review. If the committee makes recommendations to change our existing shift schedule and the Eboard accepts these recommendations, another motion would be offered to the membership to decide, by online vote, if they wish to accept the committee's recommendations. Of course, any changes to the shift schedule would have to be approved by management. 

The motion before you for consideration was make and seconded by two AFA members in good standing. This motion will be decided the week of February 18th by online vote.

This page has been created to keep our membershp informed with regards to the progress of the 48/96 Committee. 

Please review the information and click on the link below for the Discussion Board to address any issues or questions that our members may have about information reported here or from other sources. 

CLICK HERE FOR DISCUSSION BOARD

Reports:

Opinion Pieces of Pros and Cons for 48/96 Schedule. The committee selected 2 of its members to write Pro and Con opinion pieces. 

PROS for 48/96 - by Kyle Melton

CONS for 48/96 - by Ed Lee

Surveys:

Results of Surveys sent to Fire Departments currently operating under the 48/96 Schedule. These 5 departments that we surveyed are major department from three different states. The names of the departments are withheld so to maintain their confidentiality.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/results/SM-ZR2T6C8TV/

Survey with 198 responses

https://www.surveymonkey.com/results/SM-G9VMPSGWV/

Survey with 117 responses

https://www.surveymonkey.com/results/SM-CMDXKKPWV/

Survey with 58 responses

https://www.surveymonkey.com/results/SM-MZ8PGKPWV/

Survey with 100 responses

https://www.surveymonkey.com/results/SM-P8KMN2VJV/

Survey with 103 responses

https://www.surveymonkey.com/results/SM-ZHLH6HKJV/

Survey with 60 responses

Resources:

Comparison of the 24/48 Schedule to the 48/96 Schedule - Local 1660

St. Anthony Hospital Report 

Fort Worth Fire 48/96 - by 48/96 committee of Local 440 to educate their membership on the pros and cons of trialing the new schedule 

Project Mayday conducted by Don Abbott that surveyed 293 maydays from 264 departments. "Less than 9 percent of participating departments work a 48/96 shift schedule, but this shift accounts for 39 percent of maydays." Committee statements from Kyle Melton and Mark Bridges:

Kyle Melton - Project Mayday Synopsis

Mark Bridges - Project Mayday Synopsis

NIOSH Report 2008 - for cardiac arrest of California Lieutenant after working three consecutive 24 hour shifts. "Recommendation #2: Limit the number of consecutive shifts a FF can work... Allowing fire fighters to work consecutive shifts may represent not only an injury and illness risk issue for individual fire fighters, but also a safety and health risk for their coworkers."

NIOSH Report 2015 - for cardiac arrest of fire Engineer, working a 48-96 schedule, found unresponsive at the beginning of his second, regularly scheduled, 24-hour shift. However, this would have been his third consecutive 24-hour shift as he worked a 24-hour overtime shift the day before. "Recommendation #5: Limit the number of consecutive shifts a fire fighter can work." The investigation concedes that there is no data linking chronic sleep deprivation with sudden cardiac death but still warns that, "Allowing fire fighters to work consecutive shifts may represent not only an injury and illness risk for individual fire fighters, but also a safety and health risk for their coworkers and the public." The CDC was contacted and they have no official recommendation on firefighter shift schedule.  

OCFA 2018 - Chief Officer Kenneth Harrison, of Orange County Fire Authority (largest department on 48-96, similar in size to AFD), researched impact of 48-96 and provided results as an Executive Fire Officer Applied Research Project. Chief Harrison noted that, "Morale has suffered and the lowest it has been in decades" with minimal impacts to sick leave and vacation. As a Chief Officer on 48-96, he expressed concern for accomplishing 10 days of work in 48 hours - to catch up on 4 days prior and prepare for 4 days following. "In some areas, it would appear the current culture is more about the shift schedule and how it will benefit the individual then what is best for the fire service, and more important the community we are sworn to protect. That in of itself is a travesty as it is the true reason we are here -- to serve the community."

48-96 fire department reverts back to 24-48 Ottawa, IL 2018 - "The chief is of the opinion that safety is compromised. For example, we have more accidents on the second 24-hour part of the shift than the first 24-hour part of the shift. We've also looked at various studies, particularly with respect to our medics, that say fatigue and so forth results in less efficient and safe service after 24 hours." According to their union, Local 523, the 48-96 was unanimously approved by members in 2013, saved money for the city, and gave more continuous off-time for firefighters.

The Effects Fire Department Shift Schedules on Sleep Quality by Joel M. Billings - Bachelor of Science in Fire Science with a Concentration in Emergency Medicine - Lake Superior State University - Sault Sainte Marie, Michigan. 

Synopsis of The Effects Fire Department Shift Schedules on Sleep Quality - Billings Study 

Madison LODD 2018 - cardiac arrest of firefighter, shortly after finishing a 48-hour shift (normally 24-48). NIOSH plans to investigate. "The fire department is looking at whether wellness programs, fitness testing and shift scheduling could better prevent job-related health problems or deaths."

International Fire Chiefs Association article addressing addresses 48-96 and the lack of studies regarding shift-work in general. "While 24-hour shifts have been the norm for quite some time, it's not uncommon for large, busy agencies to work 10/14s, 12s or some other modified shift of less than 24 hours. Yet, in the western U.S., a number of departments have gone to a 48/96 schedule. That's right, 48 hours on, 96 hours off. Most members love that schedule, but is it appropriate? Quite frankly, I'm surprised that fire and EMS haven't already been regulated away from shifts that are more than 12 hours... Regardless, if we're not careful, we're going to be told how many hours we'll be allowed to work, and it will probably mean the death of the 24-hour shift."

Annals of Occupational and Environmental Medicine articles acknowledges the lack of information regarding long term effects of consecutive shifts worked and proposes a hypothesis. "Despite the fact that very long (> 48 hrs) shifts are common among firefighters in the United States, little is known about the impact of consecutive 24-hr shifts on the cardiovascular health of firefighters... Based on the "heuristic" concept, we hypothesize that the control capacity of the cardiovascular system in firefighters will decrease to some extent through a single 24-hour shift, but it will return to its initial level of capacity following 24-hr off-duty days. However, if a firefighter does 24-hr shifts consecutively, particularly 72 or 96 hours of consecutive work, the control capacity of the cardiovascular system in the firefighter will decrease significantly due to increased work and rest imbalance, which results in accumulating cardiovascular strain over consecutive 24-hr shifts."

FEMA 2017 - recent study investigated 24/48, 48/96, and Kelly (on/off/on/off/on/off/off/off/off) at six fire departments. "The 24on/48off shift schedule is associated with the best sleep quality and the Kelly shift schedule is associated with the poorest sleep quality. 

Oakland - Local 55 - 48 96 Schedule Proposal 

PLEASE CLICK ON ANY OF THE ATTACHED LINKS FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

1) Document Library: Surveys, 48/96 Department Information, Meeting Minutes, Research papers

2) AFD Opinions

3) AFD Runs

4) Discussion Board for the 48 96 Committee - this Discussion Board was used for the Committee during the work phase of the Project. This is a view only. You cannot post on this Discussion Board. If you wish to post a comment about the findings of the 48 96 Committee please use the link at the top of this page. 

We will continue to post information to this page so please check back periodically for any updates from this Committee.