Union leader demands salary justice for emergency managers

By The Star Staff

Authentic Union of Emergency Managers President Liz M. Colón Alicea said Sunday that the public servants represented by the union are suffering abuses and injustices and need salary raises.

Emergency managers have been left out of efforts by the Legislature and the Financial Oversight and Management Board to grant salary increases and enhance retirement to other government entities, she said.

“It is outrageous that work is being done and legislation is being legislated for the benefit of a single component of the Department of Public Safety while other components, which are in the front line of [emergency] response, are excluded,” Colón Alicea pointed out.

Currently, the number of emergency managers eligible for retirement is well below the enrollment of other components of the Department of Public Safety.

“This means that the economic impact of including emergency managers, so that they take advantage of retirement, is minimal,” the union leader said.

The wage scale for the group of emergency workers has not been reviewed since 2008, and they have also been left out of the granting of incentives aimed at those responding to the pandemic.

Colón Alicea called on Gov. Pedro Pierluisi Urrutia to address the matter of salary raises for emergency personnel with the seriousness and urgency required to do justice to Puerto Rico’s emergency managers.

Meanwhile, the union expressed its support for the salary demands made by fellow firefighters, paramedics and police officers.