Philadelphia Firefighters Union, City Officials Misled Fire Dept. Employees About Pension Benefits, Class Action Alleges

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A proposed class action claims Philadelphia and its firefighters union have misled fire department employees about increased pension benefits from vacation time sellbacks in order to preserve the benefits for union officials and high-ranking city employees.

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According to the 18-page lawsuit, top city officials and executives in the Philadelphia Firefighters’ and Paramedics’ Union, Local 22 of the International Association of Firefighters, have “conspired” to conceal knowledge that fire department employees would receive increased pension benefits if they sold back to the city unused vacation time prior to retirement or enrollment in a deferred retirement option plan (DROP).

Though union officials have for decades discouraged members from selling back unused vacation time, purporting that doing so might cause the city to limit or eliminate the benefit, certain union executives and high-ranking city workers were “doing the very thing they were telling rank-and-file union members not to do” and increasing their own pensions by taking advantage of the benefit, the suit alleges.

The case charges that these higher-ups have “attempted to preserve vacation sellbacks and increased pension benefits for themselves and concealed information from bargaining unit members so that [the officials’] ability to receive those benefits would not be jeopardized or eliminated.”

Per the complaint, fire department employees may sell up to 192 hours of unused vacation time back to the city each year. Alternatively, they may sell back outstanding time upon retirement or the date of DROP enrollment, but at a reduced pay rate, the filing adds.

Because union officials have consistently tried to prevent employees from selling back unused vacation time, the lawsuit alleges, firefighters like the plaintiffs—two union members who have worked for the Philadelphia fire department for decades—have refrained from taking advantage of the benefit and have therefore accumulated substantial unused vacation time. For example, one plaintiff had accumulated approximately 225 hours of vacation time upon his DROP enrollment in October 2021, the suit says.

However, the case claims that because the defendants “actively concealed” the fact that employees would receive increased pension benefits if they sold back vacation time prior to DROP enrollment, the plaintiff has lost the chance to maximize his pension.

As the complaint tells it, the defendants hid this knowledge until at least November 2021, when the union’s financial secretary and member of Philadelphia’s Board of Pensions and Retirement informed one plaintiff that “he and the union knew that selling back unused vacation time prior to retirement or DROP enrollment could increase an employee’s pension benefits.”

According to the filing, the executive also told the plaintiff that “if too many fire department employees sold back their vacation time, the city would eliminate the benefit.”

The lawsuit argues that absent the defendants’ concealment of material facts, firefighters like the plaintiffs “could have potentially increased their pension payments by as much as hundreds of dollars per month.”

As of the date of the filing, the city of Philadelphia and its firefighters union continue to discourage pre-retirement or DROP enrollment vacation time sellbacks and have purportedly “ostracized” one plaintiff for informing other employees of the union’s actions, the suit claims.

The lawsuit looks to represent any current or former Philadelphia fire department employees exclusively represented by Local 22 who retired or enrolled in the city’s deferred retirement option plan since November 2019 and who did not sell back the maximum amount of vacation time possible during the last two full years of employment prior to retirement or DROP enrollment.

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