Salary & Benefits

HEALTH INSURANCE

Montgomery County Fire and Rescue IAFF Employees are enrolled in a group health insurance plan. Each year you will have the opportunity to make Health Plan Choices that best suite you and your family's needs. Your health benefits begin on day 1 of your employment with MCFRS. We have provided a link below which allows you to see the different health care and life insurance options offered by Montgomery County Government. There are many to choose from, and include the biweekly costs for each. For in-depth Health Benefits, view the following link: Employee Health Categories

When you can retire?

You may retire on one of the following:

• your normal retirement date
• a trial retirement (available for unrepresented employees)

Normal retirement

Your normal retirement date depends on your group, your age, and how many years of credited service* you have

If you belong to group	And you have credit service of at least	Your age is at least
G, GZ, or GK	15 years or 20 years	55 Any Age

Before you retire, you must submit a properly completed written application at least 30 days before the date you wish to retire. Contact MCERP to schedule a counseling session.

* Years of membership service for combined full-time and part-time service. Part-time service is not adjusted to a full-time equivalency to determine eligibility for retirement. Use your total membership in the plan, plus any purchased or transferred service, and sick leave credit.

Early retirement

Group G, GZ, and GK members are not eligible for Early Retirement.

Trial retirement

If you are an unrepresented employee, you may be eligible to retire on a trial basis if you meet the requirements for normal retirement. Trial retirement can be for up to nine months. To do so, send written notification to MCERP at least 30 days before you would like to begin your trial retirement.

To end your trial retirement before the end of the nine month period, write to the Chief Administrative Officer at least 30 days before you would like to return to service. You will be offered your same job, if available, or a job with similar salary and grade level. If you refuse the job offered to you, you may be considered permanently retired. You may only take a trial retirement once. If you do not write to the Chief Administrative Officer to end your trial retirement, you will automatically be permanently retired at the end of the nine month period. You may not take a trial retirement if you are covered by a bargaining agreement.

What you receive at retirement

The pension you receive at retirement depends on your earnings, your total credited service, and your plan. Benefits may be limited or subject to change in order to comply with the provisions of the Internal Revenue Code.

If you belong to the Optional Non-Integrated Plan, your benefit will equal a percentage of your average final earnings (AFE) multiplied by your years of credited service (CS) as follows:

• 2.5% x AFE x years of CS (years 1-20)
• + 2.0% x AFE x years of CS (years 21-31)
• + 2.0% x AFE x sick leave credits used for credited service in excess of 20 years (up to 2 years*)
• * 2.5% for sick leave credits used for credited service for years 1-20)

For example, if your Average Final Earnings equal $50,000 and you have a total of 27 years of credited service, your benefit would be calculated as follows:

• 2.5% x $50,000 x 20 = $25,000
• + 2.0% x $50,000 x 7 = $ 7,000
• $32,000 per year

If you belong to the optional integrated or mandatory integrated plan, your benefit will be calculated according to two different formulas: one for payments before you reach Social Security Normal Retirement Age, then another for payments after you reach Social Security Normal Retirement Age.

WORK SCHEDULES

Montgomery County Fire and Rescue schedules employees on one of two schedules. There is a shift work schedule and a day work
schedule. Shift work is the predominant schedule in our department. {C} {C}

Employees scheduled on shift work will be assigned to a rotating schedule. Employees are assigned for 24 hour shift which begins at 7am and ends the following day at 7am. Attached is a calendar schedule for a typical year. Employees are assigned to either A shift (blue), B shift (green), or C shift (red). Employees are required to report for duty on one of the assigned shift schedules. You will work for 24 hours straight, and have the following 2 days off.

Employees are assigned a Kelly Day. A Kelly Day is a permanent day off for the employees work schedule. You can be assigned to permanent Mondays off, Tuesdays, or any of the remaining days of the week. Lets review the calendar to demonstrate and describe how the Kelly Day works:

You have been assigned to A-shift(blue) and your first day of work is January 2nd. You are responsible for reporting to your assigned fire station by 7am on all of the days listed in blue on the calendar.

You have been assigned a Wednesday Kelly. Whenever the shift work schedule falls on a Wednesday, then this means it is your permanent day off. So using the calendar as an example, you would not be assigned to work on Wednesday January 20th. A Kelly day happens once every 3 weeks. If you look at the calendar to figure out your next Kelly Day Off, your next day off would be February 10th. A Kelly day is necessary to balance the amount of hours employees work on a weekly and monthly basis.

The second schedule that employees are assigned to is called a day work schedule. Employees are responsible for reporting to an assigned fire station Monday-Friday. The employees begin their shift at 7am and end the day at 5pm. Day work schedule employees are responsible for a 40 hour work week; therefore, a Kelly Day is assigned to each employee to balance the weekly work hours.

Day work employees will be assigned a permanent day off. For example, if you are assigned a Tuesday Kelly Day, then you are not assigned to work that day. It is your permanent day off.

Employees have the ability to place a work assignment request online. They can request the station they want to work at, and the shift schedule; however, there are many factors involved that will determine whether the employees request is granted.

Many stations have the need for specially trained personnel to fill positions. Many stations require employees to be trained as paramedics, hazardous materials technicians, swift water rescue technicians, and urban search and rescue technicians.

There are many other factors that can determine a firefighter/rescuer's schedule and are not limited to the above criteria. If you have further questions about work assignments and schedules, please contact the recruitment division for Montgomery County Fire and Service.

WHAT DO I HAVE TO DO TO BE PROMOTED IN MCFRS?

Once you have completed recruit school, you would be assigned to one of the fire stations in Montgomery County to continue your training, and be placed in probationary status. If you successfully pass all of the requirements of your probationary period, you will be promoted to Firefighter/Rescuer II. Your salary would move to a Grade B (F2 Fire Fighter/Rescuer II).

The next progression would be to promote to F3 Fire Fighter/Rescuer III. You would be required to take classes at the Public Service Training Academy(PSAT). Upon completion of your training, and meeting the requirements, you could be promoted to FF III. You would move to a Grade C or D depending on quickly you complete your training, and your salary would rise to that level under the rank of F3 Fire Fighter Rescuer III.

The next step in the process becomes more competitive. It is the rank of Master Firefighter Rescuer. The promotion to this rank involves more educational requirements, and a written exam. The written exam is administered to everyone that applies for the position. An eligibility list is created with the top scores, and a combination of other requirements.

The promotional process is very competitive, but with hard work and dedication, you could move up rather quickly. The rank of Master Firefighter can be achieved by the time you reach Grade D or E. The remaining ranks of Lieutenant and Captain are achieved through a promotional process. Candidates need to have additional educational requirements, and are required to pass several layers of testing. Candidates are placed on eligibility lists for these ranks if they are able to score high enough in the testing process. The rank of Lieutenant can be achieved early as Grades E and F, which is in the chart below. The rank of Captain can be achieved early as Grades G and H. Employees must complete 2 years service in each of the ranks from Master Firefighter to Captain before they are eligible to test for the next promotional process.

Once you have completed 2 years as a Captain. You would be eligible to test for the following ranks:

Battalion Chief with a 10% raise
Assistant Chief with a 10 % raise
Division Chief with a 10% raise

(The Fire Chief) This position is appointed by the County Executive and Council.