§ 7-304 — Participation of municipalities.

(a) Any municipality may by ordinance adopt an average work week of fifty-six hours for permanent paid fire personnel as provided in sections 7-303 to 7-306, inclusive. (b) The legislative body of such municipality may, by ordinance, or shall, upon petition of electors of such municipality in number not less than five per cent of the total number of electors on the last-completed registry list, submit the question of adopting the provisions of said sections in the fire department of such municipality to a vote of the electors thereof at the next general election or at a special election or meeting called for such purpose. Any such petition shall contain the ordinance to be voted upon by the electors. Such election or meeting shall be called and held, and the vote on the question canvassed and the result determined and certified, as nearly as may be in accordance with the provisions of the laws governing the election of civil officers therein. The notice or warning for such election or meeting shall state that a purpose of such election or meeting is to ascertain whether or not such municipality shall adopt an average work week of fifty-six hours for permanent paid fire personnel and that such election or meeting is called under the provisions of this section. The vote on such question shall be taken by a “YES” and “NO” vote on the voting tabulator, and the voting tabulator ballot, which shall bear the words “Shall a fifty-six hour work week for permanent paid fire personnel be adopted?”, shall be provided in accordance with the provisions of section 9-250 . If, upon the official determination of the result of such vote, it appears that a majority of those voting on the question are in favor of the adoption of the provisions of sections 7-303 to 7-306 , inclusive, said sections shall take effect as to such municipality no later than ninety days thereafter, provided, when the fiscal year of any such municipality begins within ninety days thereafter, the effective date for such municipality shall be no later than the first day of the fiscal year next following the expiration of the ninety-day period.

Legislative History

(1949, S. 427d; 1957, P.A. 13, S. 49; February, 1965, P.A. 574, S. 4; P.A. 86-170, S. 6, 13; P.A. 11-20, S. 1.) History: 1965 act deleted obsolete reference to Sec. 7-307, substituting Sec. 7-306; P.A. 86-170 required that designation on ballot label be in form of question and substituted term “fire personnel” for “firemen”; pursuant to P.A. 11-20, “machine” and “ballot label” were changed editorially by the Revisors to “tabulator” and “ballot”, respectively, in Subsec. (b), effective May 24, 2011. Does not permit adoption of average work week of fewer than 56 hours. 149 C. 528.