Firefighters Union on the consequences of their colleagues΄ absence due to Covid-19
Fire Service
20 Aug 2021
/ 13:28
CORFU. We remain at the service of the community – our services exceed the prescribed working hours
“The Fire Service never closes, despite the mandatory absence of our colleagues due to Covid-19,” said the Firefighters Union. “We will always be in the front line but we ask the administration to take the factor of physical exhaustion into account.”
Corfu Firefighters Union’s statement:
Regarding the information published about our colleagues with Covid-19, we would like to inform our fellow citizens that we, the firefighters, are not immune to this disease. The conditions under which we offer our services – especially in the existing facilities combined with the gathering of almost all personnel almost daily due to the general state of alert that our Service has been put on for the fires throughout the country – force us into overcrowding, with all that it entails.
However, unlike other services and bodies that close down when finding a single Covid case, we remain at the service of the community, both in our usual duties and in other duties (assistance to EODY teams at the airport in the separation of visitors and tourists and the delivery of vaccines to health facilities on the island).
The internal structure of finding a solution practically means that the employees now perform regular services that exceed the working hours provided for by law, with the exception of emergency calls that are made on a daily basis for every single incident that occurs.
We hope that the administration has taken the factor of physical exhaustion into account – as well as any other unpredictable factor that may arise – when deciding whether to request assistance from other services or not. Either way, we will remain in the line of duty for as long as we are able to and even longer.
For the Board of Corfu Firefighters Union
The President
Karatarakis I. Nikolaos
The General Secretary
Boubas D. Vasilios
Corfu Firefighters Union’s statement:
Regarding the information published about our colleagues with Covid-19, we would like to inform our fellow citizens that we, the firefighters, are not immune to this disease. The conditions under which we offer our services – especially in the existing facilities combined with the gathering of almost all personnel almost daily due to the general state of alert that our Service has been put on for the fires throughout the country – force us into overcrowding, with all that it entails.
However, unlike other services and bodies that close down when finding a single Covid case, we remain at the service of the community, both in our usual duties and in other duties (assistance to EODY teams at the airport in the separation of visitors and tourists and the delivery of vaccines to health facilities on the island).
The internal structure of finding a solution practically means that the employees now perform regular services that exceed the working hours provided for by law, with the exception of emergency calls that are made on a daily basis for every single incident that occurs.
We hope that the administration has taken the factor of physical exhaustion into account – as well as any other unpredictable factor that may arise – when deciding whether to request assistance from other services or not. Either way, we will remain in the line of duty for as long as we are able to and even longer.
For the Board of Corfu Firefighters Union
The President
Karatarakis I. Nikolaos
The General Secretary
Boubas D. Vasilios
