Firefighters urge council to allow veteran captain to use sick leave before retirement; union calls for handbook update

Firefighters, union representatives and the wife of a retiring captain told the Hamilton Township Council that Captain Joe Pushman was denied the use of accrued sick leave for his final two weeks of employment and urged the council to change the township employee handbook.

The testimony centered on the treatment of Pushman, who the union says retired March 1 after a work-related illness and was told he could not use sick leave for his final two weeks. Steve Dixon, captain of Engine 3 B Platoon and vice president of FMBA Local 284, said Pushman’s conditions matched injuries Dixon suffered and described the council’s decision as a failure to uphold the “social contract” between the community and its public safety workers.

“This is the social contract. In return, the will of the people administered by elected officials and those they appoint is supposed to ensure that we and our families are taken care of…