| 110th Year, 24th Issue | Thursday, January 21, 1999 | Sparta, North Carolina |
The Alleghany County Board of Commissioners agreed Monday night to offer EMS workers going to the paramedic level a one-step increase on the county's salary scale.
The offer mirrors the county's earlier offer to the EMTs. That offer, like this one, was met with a negative reaction from the workers. Some of the workers, including designated spokesperson Ken Smith, who has been on the job for almost 10 years, say they will not provide paramedic level service for the amount of pay they have been offered.
The full-time employees would be given about a five-percent pay increase, which amounts to about $1,000 per worker on average. The workers were asking for $5,000 each.
"We were kind of shocked and stunned," Smith said of the county's vote. "We were caught off guard. We really didn't expect the $5,000, but we did expect something between five percent and $5,000." Smith said the increase would net him about $700 per year. "I just can't take the extra risk for that amount of money," Smith said.
"It's not worth taking on the additional responsibility for that pay increase. It's an insult, really." He noted that paramedics face much more liability and perform many more lifesaving functions than EMT-Intermediates. As for Smith, he said that he will remain at the EMT-I ranking and continue to work for the county as long as he can. "I'll remain at the intermediate level until they can do better with the money," he said. However, if the county attempts to force him to accept the EMT-P ranking with the current pay, he said he will go looking for another job. "Are you hiring?" he asked jokingly during an interview Tuesday.
None of the workers have spoke openly of resigning over the incident, Smith said.
Get the rest of this article in this week's issue of the Alleghany News!
Email: allnews@ls.net