The Importance of a Fire Department Safety Officer Research Paper

The Importance of a Fire Department Safety Officer - Research Paper Example OSHA guidelines were set up in order to lessen the risk of firefighter work-related injuries. Fire department safety officers refer to these guidelines for training and comply with them in order to keep their employees safe during and after emergency situations ("Fire service", n.d.).   Firefighters can be either on-call, voluntary or full-time firefighters. Voluntary firefighters are not eligible for pay or any workers’ compensation. In contrast, on call and full-time firefighters are eligible for workers’ compensation. Workers’ compensation is a law that allows employees to file for benefits when they incur work-related illnesses or injuries. These benefits can be medical in nature, including rehabilitation programs or replacement wages. Some employers require full-time employees to enroll in workers’ compensation benefits as part of their cafeteria plans. This ensures that in an emergency situation that may result in the injury or death of the employee, the latter will still get compensated. In order to avail of workers’ compensation benefits, an employee needs to file a claim ("Firefighters", n.d.). The claim has to coincide with the OSHA record logs that the employee did sustain an injury while working on the job or as a resul t of the working environment, like in the case of firefighters who are exposed to hazardous wastes and chemicals. Safety officers are responsible for keeping these injury logs so that when an employee files for a claim, they can present the needed documentation to support the claim. ("OSHA recordkeeping", n.d.)   When filing workers’ compensation though, volunteer firefighters do not get the same benefits since they are not deemed as employees. Even though they sustain the same injuries as full-time firefighters, when they get injured or get ill, their claims will be denied.