Firefighter on paid leave shows little sign of injury

Michael Joyce, a Braintree resident, was hurt on June 2 and started injury leave on June 10, according to Fire Department records, while receiving full pay. He had not returned to the job as of Monday.

Fire Department and Town Hall officials, citing privacy laws surrounding medical issues, declined to describe Joyce’s injury, or how it happened, other than to say it was not suffered while fighting a fire. The officials also would not say when he is due back on the job.

Joyce did not return repeated phone calls seeking a comment on his situation, and no one answered when a reporter knocked on the door of his home last Friday. Because the nature of Joyce’s injury has been kept private, it is impossible to say whether his recent activities indicate that it has healed. He has not filed for disability.

Under the firefighters union contract, Joyce could be assigned to light duty in the Fire Department, if the activity is cleared by a doctor’s note.

After going on injury leave, Joyce was observed by a Globe reporter supervising workers on a home-addition project on St. Claire Street in Braintree. Joyce’s contracting company, CMJ Properties Corp., has been hired to add a 20-by-20-foot garage, with a half-bath, to the home at 130 St. Claire St., according to the building permit.

Joyce took out the permit on the $38,000 project on May 29, four days before he was injured.

While on injury leave, Joyce was observed by the Globe at the work site on five occasions, driving up in his Chevy pickup and speaking with crews. His company’s trailer, with the logo CMJ, has been parked at the house since at least July 20, and a sign touting “Quality Construction By CMJ Properties Corp.’’ stands on the front lawn.

Shortly after noon on July 10, Joyce pulled into Braintree Lumber Co. Inc. on Hancock Street to buy cinderblocks, which he and an employee of Braintree Lumber loaded into the back of Joyce’s truck. The 41-year-old firefighter appeared to have no problems picking up two 38-pound blocks, one in each hand, during the loading process.

Joyce then drove back to the house on St. Claire Street, where the blocks were unloaded by employees of a masonry company working at the site.

Firefighters typically are assigned light duty when in physical therapy recovering from an injury, or after surgery, if surgery is required, said Peter Morin, chief of staff to Braintree Mayor Joseph C. Sullivan. Citing privacy laws, Morin declined to say where Joyce was in his recovery.

Fire Chief Kenneth J. McHugh said he could not talk specifically about Joyce’s injury. Joyce has not been asked to work light duty, McHugh said, because he does not have a doctor’s note.

“He is following . . . the proper steps to get to the point where he is right now,’’ said McHugh. “There will be a resolution very soon because he expects to hear from the doctor, who will notify me.’’ Joyce is one of two firefighters out on injury leave, he said.

Firefighters on the 86-member Braintree force with a few years on the job earn about $55,000 a year, before overtime, according to the department.

But at a time when many fire departments across the state have instituted layoffs, hiring freezes, or slashes in overtime in response to drastic budget cuts, the two firefighters’ absence has not been a hardship for the Braintree force, said McHugh. He said staffing levels are adequate and the department has not had to resort to paying overtime for coverage.

Still, the head of a taxpayers-advocacy group said the Joyce case suggests poor accountability and a waste of the public’s money.

“The obvious question is, why can’t he fulfill his public function if he can run a private business?’’ said Michael J. Widmer, president of the nonprofit Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation. “He’s surely capable of doing light duty for the Fire Department. This may be a unique case, but it is another example of the double standard in which public employees are not held accountable.’’

Firefighters, especially in Boston, have been the subject of a number of unflattering stories recently, including Albert Arroyo, who was fired by the Boston Fire Department a year ago after seeking a disability pension for a back injury but then appearing on videotape a month later taking part in a bodybuilding contest.

Arroyo’s case was one of dozens of questionable disability claims under investigation by federal authorities. The probe was triggered by a Globe report that found nearly three-quarters of Boston firefighter retirements between 2005 and 2007 were due to accidental disability, more than twice the rate seen in other cities of similar size.

Matt Carroll can be reached at mcarroll@globe.com.