How firefighters across Florida receive benefits for cancer treatment is at the center of a conflict between the city of Tallahassee and the statewide firefighter’s union.
In 2019, the Florida Legislature passed a law deeming cancer an occupational hazard for firefighters. That’s due, in part, to toxic materials in the fires they’re tasked with putting out. Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis, who is also the State Fire Marshal, spoke to that during a press conference on the bill.
“Seventy percent of deaths in the line of duty are cancer related. Think about that a minute. What type of recruitment tool is that to go into the profession, that 70 percent of the deaths that occur are cancer related? So, enough is enough. We’ve got to change the number.”
Former Senator Anitere Flores, a Miami-Dade Republican, was the bill’s Senate sponsor.
“What we are proposing now in this bill, in this amendment, is that it would require the employer to reimburse a firefighter for any out-of-pocket expenses that are incurred because of cancer that has… that they have gotten cancer as a result of their job,” she said.
Senate Bill 426 also includes death benefits for the surviving spouse of a firefighter who dies of cancer. The measure passed both chambers of the Legislature unanimously, and Governor Ron DeSantis signed it into law in May of 2019.
Now the question is how it applies to Joey Davis. The president of the Tallahassee firefighter’s union has filed a complaint in Leon County’s Circuit Court to determine whether the law covers his time off while being treated for colon cancer. Davis says the city paid him his full salary while he was getting treatment, but also deducted his sick leave. He also says when he was helping to advocate for the law, he never thought he’d be the one who would need it.
“…thinking that I was standing up for my members and their rights and looking out for their best interests,” he said. “Which I was, and it is a benefit for them, but I never thought that I would be needing that coverage.”
He ended up having emergency surgery the same night he went to the hospital.
Mike Bellamy is a 24-year veteran of the Tallahassee Fire Department. He’s also the district representative to the Florida Professional Firefighters, the statewide union. Bellamy says the state union is fully behind Davis in the fight – not just for Davis, but for all the firefighters in Florida who have cancer – and their families.
“We know that if a ruling comes out of this from the courts that denies these legislative, these statutory benefits, that it likely could have a statewide impact on the firefighters who are out there battling occupational cancer every day,” Bellamy said.
The city says the Firefighter’s Cancer Law is an alternative to workers’ compensation benefits – not an addition to them – and points out in its legal filing that the city “does not have leave policies for injuries that occur on the job other than workers’ compensation.”
On November 6th, Bellamy hand-delivered a letter from the state union president to Tallahassee Mayor John Dailey, asking for a meeting. But Bellamy says there’s been no response from Dailey in the five weeks since.
“Mayor Dailey did not respond to our request to meet, from the local level and the statewide level…unfortunately,” Bellamy said.
And Dailey did not respond to WFSU’s requests for comment.
Davis says he’s most concerned about what this conflict could mean for firefighters and their families down the road, especially when it’s a question of paying the spouse of a firefighter who dies of cancer.
“That’s really the big concern,” he said. “If the city’s willing to push this off and push their responsibility in this off and discount what legislators are saying the intent of the legislation is, why would we not feel that they would do the same thing were it a death or a terminal case of cancer?”
Davis is back on full duty at the Tallahassee Fire Department for the first time since March.
