Mass. Dispatcher Off Air for Three Years Still Collecting Pay

SALISBURY — More than three years after going out on sick leave following the death of her friend and colleague Lt. Tim Oliveria, fire department dispatcher and secretary Linda Bloom still isn’t back at her desk, but she’s drawn her regular paycheck on her more than $40,000 salary every pay period.

With her allotted sick and annual leave obviously used up, Town Manager Neil Harrington said of Bloom’s status, that “for lack of a better term, she’s out on a paid medical leave.”

Bloom’s salary is being paid from the fire department’s salary line item within the town’s annual operating budgets, Harrington confirmed, and not as a result of an open workers compensation insurance claim.

For selectmen who’ve watched for years as the situation mushroomed into a more than $120,000 expense for no services rendered, and for members of the Salisbury Fire Department, a resolution to the problem needs to be forthcoming, and sooner rather than later.

“I have discussed this matter with the members of the Board of Selectmen,” Harrington said yesterday. “It is a priority with them. I talked with the town attorney this week and impressed upon him that we need to resolve this matter before the end of this fiscal year (June 30). But rather than litigation, I’d like to try to resolve this.”

Because of confidentiality restrictions placed on employers and supervisors through the federal HIPPA regulations, neither Harrington nor fire Chief Rick Souliotis can speak directly on the medical specifics of Bloom’s claim that’s kept her away from her duties since the fall of 2011. However, they don’t deny that her issue revolves around the tragic death of Oliveira, who died in July 2011 as a result of injuries he suffered when a vehicle he was working on pinned him to the ground at the fire station, while Bloom was on duty.

Labor regulations don’t allow Bloom to go out on or retire early for reasons of post-traumatic shock, as did former Salisbury fire Chief Paul Antonellis, both Harrington and Souliotis confirmed. So that resolution to the situation isn’t open to the town.

“She’s not considered a firefighter,” Souliotis said. “She’s a member of another union. And you can’t get out on a 1-11F (medical) disorder unless you’re a firefighter or a police officer.”

Harrington agreed, saying that Bloom’s job is considered administrative and that she’s a member of the town’s union (Teamsters Local 170) that encompasses professional, administrative, office and technical personnel.

Exactly what her issue is, Harrington can’t say, but he did confirm that Bloom is under the care of a health care professional, with whom he’s had written contact, but not recently. As for Bloom, she hasn’t contacted the town herself in more than a year, he said.

The limbo-like status of Bloom’s situation is not merely about paying her a $43,350 yearly salary without her showing up for her day-time shift, Souliotis said. The lack of a day dispatcher takes its toll every time firefighters have to make a run. Since Souliotis’ department doesn’t have the money in its budget to hire a replacement, a firefighter has to do her job.

“It’s one less firefighter to deploy when we leave the building on a call,” Souliotis said. “What happened to Timmy was tragic; I know that, he was my brother-in-law. But we have to get over it and move on. If you can’t do that, then you need to go. If she can’t come back to work, we need to fix this. Buy her out, litigate, whatever. I just want the situation resolved.”

Salisbury firefighter and the firefighters’ union president Matt Swenson explained that before Bloom’s absence, department protocol and union policy called for three firefighters to be dispatched on a fire engine to respond to emergencies. With her gone, that changed, he said.

“With no day dispatcher, when a call comes for a fire or something else, one firefighter has to stay behind and man the desk,” Swenson said. “Her being out means there’s one less firefighter to be able to respond to emergencies. It’s a matter of safety.”

Adding to the frustration is the fact that this isn’t the first time Bloom has had problems at work that left her work undone. While Antonellis was chief, Bloom filed a complaint that kept her away from her duties for quite a while.

“I wasn’t chief then,” Souliotis said. “But I heard about it. I believe it was a harassment complaint against a former chief.”

Although he wasn’t town manager at the time, Harrington said, to his knowledge that issue was resolved and Bloom returned to work.

And initially after Oliveira’s death, to her credit, Bloom did go back to work for a while. But within a few months, she left, kept getting paid but hasn’t been back since.

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©2015 The Daily News of Newburyport (Newburyport, Mass.)

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