The city Emergency Services Department credits a switch to 12-hour shifts for its paramedics and emergency service technicians for a $700,000 drop in overtime costs last fiscal year, Emergency Services Director Mark Rigg said.

But staff shortages continue to be a problem.

Nearly a year after launching a pilot program in late August and switching to 12-hour shifts, there have been ambulance shift staff shortages 37 times, Rigg said in an email response to questions from the Honolulu Star-Advertiser.

The city is negotiating with the United Public Workers on an agreement that would extend the pilot program establishing 12-hour shifts as the norm. The pilot is slated to end Aug. 1.

For all of fiscal 2015, the 12-month year that ended June 30, there was $5.32 million in overtime, a drop from $6.03 million in fiscal 2014. Rigg said the 2015 total includes about $300,000 in collective bargaining agreement pay increases. More savings would have been achieved had the city started on July 1, 2014, he said.

But the 37 unmanned shifts during the past year at ambulance stations across the island were something that longer shifts under the pilot was supposed to help reduce.

On the bright side, Rigg said, the department was able to add 70 additional shifts during the year where needed “when personnel resources allowed” because the ranks of EMTs and paramedics have increased.

There were 219 EMTs and paramedics in place when the project began, and that tally is now 241, Rigg said.

About 99 percent of all paramedics and EMTs are on the 12-hour schedule, requiring them to alternate three- and four-day workweeks. Most previously worked the traditional five-day, eight-hour schedules. EMS officials contend 12-hour shifts keep personnel fresher through shorter workweeks, thus reducing absenteeism and mandatory overtime. The department also contends that 12-hour schedules make it easier to retain employees, many of whom cite burnout for leaving.

EMTs and paramedics receive a night differential of $1 an hour, plus meal reimbursements, as a result of the pilot program.

The city wants to continue the 12-hour shifts if maintained “in a fiscally responsible manner while being mindful of what is best for the community and the personnel,” Rigg said.

City Council Public Safety Chairman Ron Menor said he has been told that some EMS personnel have been allowed to abuse overtime rules through a loophole that allows them to call in sick one day during a workweek, and then going back to work on an additional, unscheduled day at the overtime rate.

Rigg, in response, said that an employee who calls in sick is required to work one regular shift before being eligible to work an overtime shift on a day off. Overtime issues, however, are a concern for the city and among the issues being discussed with the UPW, he said.

Menor said he was told that the abuse was not widespread. Nonetheless, he said, he hopes the issue can be addressed during negotiations with the union.

“In general, employees have been satisfied (with 12-hour shifts) and that they would like to see the arrangement maintained,” Menor said. If the city is actually saving money through the shift, “certainly I’m supportive of that effort.”