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6. No duty free meal breaks which may be in violation of statutes: There are <br />insufficient personnel for meal breaks which may violate state law. Even our contract <br />mandated 10 minute breaks every 4 hours leaves 1 dispatcher on duty for the whole <br />island. <br />Insufficient personnel may be a health hazard to the workers: Two dispatchers <br />are on a long term sick leave (industrial). There is a long training period for new <br />dispatchers (1 year). The county is unable to keep up with staffing (including <br />retirements). We often go several months before a position is filled. This is causing <br />heavy overtime on the dispatchers, lowering moral (insufficient time with families, <br />incentive to quit, insufficient time to recover or rest from a stressful operation leading <br />to a sickness, and overtired dispatchers at work who become more likely to make a <br />mistake). <br />All the fire stations, firefighters, and equipment in the world are rendered useless if they <br />are unable to receive the alarm. We all want the public to receive the best emergency <br />service possible and a safe and effective working environment for the employees. <br />Thanks for your time and consideration. <br />Darryl D. Willis <br />Fire Dispatcher <br />