Another casualty of Obamacare.
Via Police One
More than 13 percent of the officers in the Memphis Police Department have called in sick since June 30, the so-called Blue Flu that officials acknowledged Sunday was a deliberate work action.
A total of 308 Memphis officers have called in sick over the last week, MPD Director Toney Armstrong said in a Sunday afternoon press conference outside City Hall. That’s 13.5 percent of the estimated 2,280 officers in the department.
That’s also a big jump from the 181 who had called in sick through Saturday, a number that led MPD to ask the Shelby County Sheriff’s Department for help. About 50 deputies and reserve officers helped patrol Downtown Saturday night, and at least eight more were on loan Sunday.
The job action, which does not appear to have spread to the city’s fire department, comes in protest to a recent City Council vote that will reduce health care subsidies for current and retired city employees to redirect that money to the city’s troubled pension fund.
“It appears on the surface of it,” Armstrong said Sunday, “that we do have a work action.”
Armstrong acknowledged Sunday that some of the 308 officers have called in sick multiple times. Officials did not provide information on how many have called in sick more than once or how many total shifts have been missed.
In addition to asking the sheriff for help, MPD officials have also authorized overtime as well as brought in officers from specialized units like Organized Crime to fill in the gaps left by those who didn’t show for work.
“It’s going to cost us greatly in terms of overtime,” said Mayor AC Wharton, who joined Armstrong at the press conference. He was flanked by several high-ranking members of his administration.
Both Armstrong and Wharton kept a civil tone Sunday, despite being given the opportunity to condemn the work action.