Firefighters working for the Wilmington Fire Department in The City of Wilmington, Delaware, are represented by IAFF Local 1590. For more than three decades, the Department had prohibited sick leave abuse under General Rule 15:11, classifying such misconduct as a Class F Violation subject to progressive discipline. T his longstanding framework changed in 2019 when the City’s Human Resources Department developed Policy 207.1/208.1, a comprehensive Tardiness and Attendance Policy that expanded the definition of sick leave abuse and established specific disciplinary triggers. The new policy identified seven distinct patterns of potentially abusive sick leave use, including absences clustered around holidays, weekends, and pay periods, and implemented a strict progressive discipline system that commenced with the fourth unapproved absence within any twelve-month period.
The City executed a thorough implementation process that began with the Administrative Board’s public approval of the policy on June 25, 2019. The Fire Chief formally communicated the policy to all department personnel on August 28, 2019, which specifically referenced the new attendance requirements and their application to fire department operations. Department-wide training sessions conducted in September 2019 included specialized instructional materials tailored to f irefighter work schedules and leave practices. The training initiative culminated in August 2020 when all personnel, completed mandatory electronic training modules on the policy. Enforcement records showed the City consistently applied the policy, with three documented disciplinary actions between 2020 and 2021 for violations of the new attendance standards.
Despite this extensive implementation record, the Union waited until January 2023 to file its unfair practice charge, claiming the policy constituted a unilateral change to mandatory bargaining subjects. The Union based its late filing on the assertion that it only became aware of the policy through a January 2023 General Order that reinforced enforcement procedures.
The Delaware Public Employment Relations Board rejected this argument after examining overwhelming evidence of earlier awareness, including training completion records that proved firefighters had been instructed on the policy in both 2019 and 2020, disciplinary actions that applied the policy beginning in 2020, and the policy’s public adoption through normal municipal governance channels. The Board noted that other city employee unions had engaged in negotiations about the policy as early as 2019, further undermining the firefighter union’s claim of recent discovery.
The Board emphasized that the 180day limitations period began running when the Union reasonably should have known about the policy change, which the evidence established as no later than August 2020 when electronic training was completed department-wide. The Union’s nearly two-and-a-half year delay in filing the charge rendered it untimely under the clear statutory deadline. The Board further found that even if timely, the charge would fail on the merits because the policy did not substantively alter the fundamental prohibition on sick leave abuse that had existed for decades under General Rule 15:11. The core disciplinary classification remained a Class F Violation, and the new policy simply provided additional guidance about patterns that might constitute abuse.
IAFF Local 1590 v. City of Wilmington, X DE PERB 9007 (DE.PERB 2025).