In Indre-et-Loire, 210 public or private companies of all sizes have signed an availability agreement with the Fire and Rescue Service. This agreement sets a period during which the volunteer can be absent from work while being paid at 100%.. In general, it is between five and fifteen days a year and that does not pose a problem, according to Lieutenant Benfifi, who is in charge of volunteering at SDIS 37: “_it is always done in good understanding, especially depending on availability from the employer. For example, we have winegrowers who work with us and it is obvious that during the harvest, we ask them less. Conversely, when the activity is quieter, our volunteer firefighters are more available “. .
Financial compensation exists, but some employers refuse to take it
The employer has the right to recover compensation that the volunteer firefighter should have touched as part of his service activity. “It’s a possibility, not an obligation“specifies Lieutenant Benfifi”and we have plenty of employers who leave their allowances to volunteer firefighters. On the contrary, there are others who, rightly, claim this allowance to compensate slightly for the salary.“.
Céline Chesnet is a volunteer firefighter at the Bléré rescue center and an employee of a company of around fifty people. His employer allows him to be absent for two weeks a year, but only for training: “When I am in training, I am not in the company but I receive 100% of my salary.
“My employer receives allowances that should have come back to me but he still loses because these allowances are lower than my salary –
On the other hand, when I am at work, the beep stays at home. I am only on call in the evening, when I come home, until the next morning“.
Captain Lachaume heads the Montbazon rescue center: for 32 years at SDIS, he has also been with Orange for 25 years. This company, which has nearly 500 employees in Indre-et-Loire, allows it to be absent for 15 days a year, for training or interventions. In particular, this enabled him to go and fight forest fires in the Var in the summer. Captain Lachaume just tries not to quit his job too hastily : “We avoid, but yes, it has already happened, necessarily, because the immediacy of the intervention means that we do not always have the possibility of preventing. The sooner we notify our employer, the better. This is also what we want to do and what we do, if only out of respect for the convention and the two companies, Orange and SDIS.“.
Reconciling her two activities at best is also Marine Mathieu’s concern. This 34-year-old woman is the sole worker on a farm in Céré-la-Ronde, but his two bosses allow him to be absent as soon as an intervention requires his presence, which ultimately happens quite rarely in this rural area: “There are times on the farm when I really can’t be away. These times, I am unavailable for the barracks, but from 9:30 am until 4 pm, I am free to be able to leave on my working time. I am in a small barracks. I don’t have a lot of speeches either. It will happen ten times a year“.
“If I was too busy, I think after a while it wouldn’t work anymore –
The agreements between the SDIS and the employer do not only fix the time during which the volunteer can be absent from work to train or go on intervention. They also mention certain delays: “we also negotiate with the employer the possibility of granting slight delays in the morning, when the volunteer firefighter, for example, leaves for intervention at 6 a.m.“explains Lieutenant Benfifi.”If the intervention lasts a little, it happens that the volunteer hires half an hour or an hour late. It is seen with the employer, he agrees and everything is done in good understanding“.
All the volunteers say it: whatever the size of the company, agreeing to have a firefighter on staff is always a civic commitment for the employer.