A few months after agreeing to provide $41 million in Covid hazard pay to 3,650 unionized city workers, Honolulu still hasn’t reached an agreement with its firefighters on how much they will receive. 

During a meeting on Tuesday, the city offered $7,500 to each of Honolulu’s approximately 1,000 firefighters who worked during the pandemic. But Hawaii Fire Fighters Association President Bobby Lee wants more for his members.

Firefighters and bus drivers were excluded from the earlier payments approved in May because their union contracts didn’t have concrete language requiring hazard pay. The city said it has offered the same amount to bus drivers — far less than what the city provided many other employees in May.

Lee stressed that firefighters were among those facing the highest risks and should be compensated similarly to other city employees who got extra pay.

Firefighters rushed into houses not knowing if patients they helped were infected with Covid, he said. Equipment had to be decontaminated back at the station, and firefighters living together during 24-hour shifts were wary of catching and spreading the virus.

“Nobody’s contract was written or set up with the intent of a worldwide pandemic,” he said Wednesday in a phone interview. “For me, I firmly believe this is not a contract issue. This is a fairness and equity issue.”

Mayor Rick Blangiardi and Managing Director Mike Formby discussed the issue with about 200 firefighters Tuesday evening in a closed meeting in Kalihi.

City spokesperson Ian Scheuring said the firefighters shared what it was like to work with a high risk of getting infected with Covid-19 during the pandemic, which began in March 2020. The mayor’s team said they faced fiscal constraints and had to finish arbitration and negotiation with the other unions before turning to the firefighters.

“The meeting ended positively with the two sides agreeing to work toward a solution,” Scheuring said in a text.

Scheuring said the city has appropriated temporary hazard pay payments “in the amount of $7,500 per firefighter” in the budget for fiscal year 2026, which began July 1 even though the union asked for more.

Lee pointed to other counties that agreed to give their firefighters 15% hazard pay over the first two years of the pandemic, which for a firefighter making about $75,000 translates to about triple the city’s current offer. That’s about on par with what other non-firefighter city employees received from those counties, and “we would like the same treatment in Honolulu,” Lee said.

Lee hopes the city will allocate more money in its next budget for firefighters’ hazard pay. Going forward, he wants the union’s contract to use broader language when it comes to hazard pay, something he said was a goal even before the pandemic. 

In addition to firefighters, Scheuring confirmed the city is offering the same amount of $7,500 for each affected bus driver. Teamsters president Kevin Holu, who represents TheBus drivers, did not respond to requests for comment.

Thousands of government workers in Hawaiʻi have been negotiating to get hazard pay for their work during the pandemic, and the result is a complex patchwork of agreements between different government bodies and the unions. 

Maui County, for example, agreed in early 2024 to pay patrol police officers 20% hazard pay for hours worked between March 4, 2020, and March 25, 2022.  Officers handling non-patrol duties were granted 15% hazard pay.

In Honolulu, the city agreed to pay police officers 15% of their normal pay. Lifeguards received the same amount. Other workers within the Hawaii Government Employees Association — the state’s largest union — received up to $15,000 if they had filed a claim. Those who didn’t file a claim got an agreed payment of $7,500.

In other unions’ contracts, Lee said, a worker who believes they’re entitled to hazard pay typically can file a claim for a specific incident. When the pandemic happened, Honolulu offered broad payouts to unions rather than sift through their members’ individual claims. 

But firefighters don’t have the ability to file a claim. In their contract, hazard pay is limited to specific situations such as going in water or flying in a chopper. Lee doesn’t think that should be a reason to limit firefighters’ hazard pay. 

“They’re not being recognized or respected,” Lee said, “for what they did.”