Staff at Washington, DC’s 911 call center have been offered an $800 monthly bonus to show up for all of their scheduled shifts, the agency announced.
The generous incentive was announced in an email Tuesday morning, NBC4 reported.
“Starting immediately all 911 employees who show up for all of their scheduled shifts will receive an $800 incentive for the month,” Office of Unified Communications director Heather McGaffin wrote.
The department is hoping that the extra cash will help with the center’s staffing woes, McGaffin added.
“Staffing is crucial to the success of our agency. Unscheduled call outs of all kinds are up and causing a hardship for fellow employees who are continuously getting stuck, coming in early, and being asked to come in on days off,” she said.
“The pilot is simple- show up for each shift you’re assigned and receive $800 additional for the month. We start today for August.”
The new bonuses were announced shortly after NBC4 reported that staffing at the 911 call center was at a critical low point.
In July, the department was short of minimum staffing levels 88% of the time, the outlet said.
31 of 65 shifts in June were also understaffed – up from 16 of 66 shifts in May, data revealed.
The agency is also battling major computer hardware issues, which have caused the 911 system to go offline six times so far this year.
The system was down for a nail-biting two hours two weeks ago, NBC4 said.
During that time, one DC family tried to call 911 for their 5-month-old baby who would not wake up from a nap, but claimed that they could not get through.
The infant later died, the outlet reported.
“Not a week goes by that I don’t have a constituent reach out who couldn’t get through, had to wait a long time for first responders to be dispatched in an emergency, or had the wrong – or no – response arrive on scene,” DC Councilmember Charles Allensaid of the crisis.
“The Executive won’t even admit there’s a major problem – but if it’s true they’re paying people $800 just to come to work, it’s a clear admission that we have an agency badly in need of major changes,” he noted.
“DC residents are shaken and don’t trust that there’s leadership and a clear directive to turn the agency around. That’s a huge problem.”
The Office of Unified Communications did not immediately respond to The Post’s request to comment on the new bonuses on Wednesday morning.
