Palm Beach Post: Library workers among county employees disciplined for skipping "hurricane duty"

In 2017, Palm Beach County (FL) made the decision to stop contracting emergency relief efforts with the Red Cross and, instead, to require untrained and unprepared county employees to take up emergency response duties, including operating shelter services.

Per the Palm Beach Post, following this past September's near miss of Hurricane Dorian on the Florida Coast 28 county employees have been suspended for a week without pay, including 14 library employees, after they refused to show up for duties they were never properly trained to carry out and many felt put both them and the public in harms way.

Emergency response is not within the job description of any of the employees who have been disciplined and many say the most training they got was a one hour video. Some tried to have assignments changed but had these requests denied.

The decision to rely on already existing county positions to replace Red Cross personnel was enacted just before Hurricane Irma in 2017. This was the first time employees were called upon since then. The county has said that if employees fail to report for emergency duties again they will be fired. The county claims that simply because the employees are public servants they ought to be called upon in such situations, even when better trained workers choosing to serve in emergency situations are available.