Massachusetts Appeals Court Rules in Favor of Melrose Firefighter in Military Leave Pay Dispute

The Massachusetts Appeals Court has ruled that a state law granting public employees up to 40 days of paid military leave annually, grants firefighter-service members who work a 24-hour shift, 40 such shifts each year. The decision reverses a Superior Court decision that held that a Melrose firefighter was only entitled to twenty – 24 hour shifts of paid military leave.

The firefighter, Robert Driscoll, served as both a Melrose firefighter and a colonel in the Air National Guard. His lawsuit centered on how many days of paid military leave he was entitled to receive each federal fiscal year under Massachusetts G.L. c. 33, § 59(a).

• Section 59. (a) An employee of the commonwealth in the service of the armed forces of the commonwealth or a reserve component of the armed forces of the United States shall be entitled to receive pay without loss of ordinary remuneration as a public employee during service in the uniformed services, annual training under section 60 or drills and parades under section 61, not exceeding 40 days in any federal fiscal year, and shall not lose any seniority or any accrued vacation leave, sick leave, personal leave, compensation time or earned overtime. For the purposes of this section, “uniformed services” shall have the same meaning as defined in section 13. For the purposes of this subsection, “day” shall mean any 24-hour period regardless of calendar day.

Driscoll worked a 24-hour on/48-hour off schedule under the collective bargaining agreement between the City of Melrose and Local 1617. Each 24-hour shift consisted of a 10-hour day tour and a 14-hour night tour, which the CBA counted as two days for vacation or sick time purposes.

Between 2019 and 2021, Driscoll missed numerous 24-hour shifts while performing military duties, including training periods and extended active-duty deployments. In each federal fiscal year, the city compensated him for 20 missed 24-hour shifts, asserting that G.L. c. 33, § 59(a) required full pay only during the “first 40 consecutive calendar days” of an annual tour of duty, and that each 24-hour shift counted as two days.

Driscoll filed suit in Superior Court seeking a declaration that he was entitled to be paid for 40 full 24-hour shifts per federal fiscal year—without any requirement that the days be consecutive. Both sides moved for summary judgment. The Superior Court ruled for the city, concluding that the statute limited paid leave to “a consecutive 40 day period.”

The Appeals Court reversed.

The court began by noting that § 59(a) entitles qualifying employees to paid military leave “not exceeding 40 days in any federal fiscal year” and specifies that “‘day’ shall mean any 24-hour period regardless of calendar day.” The panel held that this language is clear and unambiguous: employees are entitled to pay for up to forty 24-hour periods of military leave per federal fiscal year, and nothing in the statute requires those days to be consecutive.

The court rejected the city’s argument that each 24-hour shift counted as two days. The statute’s explicit definition—“‘day’ shall mean any 24-hour period”—controlled. The court emphasized that the definition was unambiguous and left no room for an interpretation treating a single 24-hour tour as two statutory days.

Finding the statutory language clear, the Appeals Court held that Driscoll was entitled to be paid for up to forty 24-hour shifts of military leave in each federal fiscal year. Here is a copy of the decision.