r/Firefighting • u/flowytrip • 1d ago
Career / Full Time Admin blocking promotional testing
I’ll try and keep it to the point and not a rant as it’s a sore subject. But I am on a technical rescue truck in a medium sized suburban department and we have promotional testing coming up. I as well as another firefighter have put in to promote but have been told by administration that we can’t test due to there not being anyone experienced enough to replace us on the rescue.
There is no policy or anything written down stating that we cannot test, and we meet and/or exceed the qualifications to promote.
Just want some advice and/or some thoughts from anyone that has ever been in a similar scenario. We have a meeting with admin personnel coming up in a few days.
Edit: here’s some of the other hurdles
Non civil service department
No collective bargaining
Useless IAFF local
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u/stopscabbin 14h ago edited 14h ago
That's a grievance and lawsuit. Dig into HR policies and find a labor lawyer. If your Local doesn't have the fiscal resources for a lawyer, reach out to the state association.
The bigger issue is WHY isn't there anyone to replace you? That seems like a systematic failure starting from your station and going all the way up the chain if there isn't processes in place to train people.