Their cost cutting causes such a detriment to their employees, it's amazing they stay in business.
-I started at $16/hr. Five years later I was making $16.23/hr, which means my real wage actually went down.
-They force their staff to pay for their own education requirements (ACLS, PALS, etc.). When they got the contract for Hanscom AFB, the contract stipulated that all staff must hold a current PALS card. Despite it being a requirement, Action forced employees to pay for this education stating, "If you don't want to pay, you don't have to work at that contract."
-They promote new, inexperienced staff to management positions, seemingly to save on payroll. This leads to very contentious supervisors who are always looking to dole out write-ups for fear that the more experienced staff may not take them seriously. They also generally do not promote people based on education level, disregarding college degrees.
In my five years, many benefits were taken away including 401k match and reimbursement for volunteer hours.
-Once MA allowed ALS trucks to include a basic EMT without a waiver, Action immediately began staffing ALS trucks P/B. They claimed they would only do this in the case of operational needs. However, open shifts were never paged out to ALS staff and were filled in with BLS staff the morning a shift began.
-Town trucks are often utilized for mutual aid and are required to post at the town line when another truck is out. This is fine within reasonable hours. However, Action sits their employees at town lines 24 hours a day while crews are on 24-hour shifts.
-9-1-1 trucks are frequently pulled away from their dedicated contracts and utilized for ALS and BLS transfers.
