• mrgoosmoos@lemmy.ca
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    1 day ago

    can someone remind me where volunteer firefighters are actually volunteers and not just part-time or on-call employees

    • Sheppa@aussie.zone
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      18 hours ago

      Australia. We have regular firefighters and volunteers.

      Volunteers don’t want to get paid as they believe it will diminish their work and make their coworkers whose lives they depend on be less reliable due to being money motivated over helping their community.

    • Ryanmiller70@lemmy.zip
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      22 hours ago

      Not sure if “on-call” in your question are still getting paid. My cousin is a volunteer firefighter and has been one since he was a teen before he was even old enough to drive. Never got paid for it and does it in a small town in the middle of nowhere. He would get calls in the middle of the night to go do it (I still remember the thing going off loud af while I was sleeping when I’d stay the night).