Firefighter Overtime Discussing Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) for Firefighters, First Responders as well as Human Resource & Finance Professional

A group of 16 EMTs have filed suit in federal court alleging that the City of Fredericksburg, Virginia has misclassified them as “employees engaged in fire protection activities” (a.k.a. §207(k) firefighters). According to the EMTs’ complaint, the city fails to pay them overtime after working more than 40 hours in a 7-day workweek. Quoting from the complaint: From the time ...

The City of Los Angeles and a class of more than 1,100 plaintiff firefighters have agreed to settle a 2023 lawsuit over unpaid work hours. The lawsuit, which was initially filed by three firefighters in federal court in February 2023, contained allegations that city firefighters were frequently being required to work beyond their 24-hour shift without compensation. Quoting from the ...

A former 911 telecommunicator/dispatcher for the City of Milwaukee, Wisconsin is suing her former employer alleging the city’s pay practices for probationary dispatchers violates the FLSA and that the city improperly retaliated against her when she complained. Christina Harris’s attorneys filed the suit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin late last month. According to the ...

More than three dozen firefighters have filed an FLSA lawsuit against their employer, the City of Haywood, California alleging that the city improperly calculated their regular rate of pay in violation of the FLSA. The lawsuit was filed by thirty-seven named plaintiffs and other “similarly situated individuals.” This likely means that additional current and former firefighters will join in on ...

The Winston-Salem Fire Department has reduced its daily minimum staffing from 89 to 79 firefighters in response to a projected budget shortfall. According to department officials, the fire department is projected to end this fiscal year $600,000-700,000 over budget. This has led department officials to reduce the minimum staffing on all the city’s fire apparatus from four to three firefighters. ...

Polk County Fire Commissioners have authorized spending $9.2 million to hire an additional 75 firefighters. The hiring plan is in response to significant employee turn-over, which according to some is partly due to excessive mandatory overtime. County officials hope that the move will significantly decrease firefighter overtime. The current levels of overtime frequently require Polk County firefighters to work beyond ...

The City of Milwaukee and a group of current and former chief officers have reached a global settlement to resolve a 2024 FLSA misclassification lawsuit. According to city documents, a total of $1 million has been earmarked to resolve claims found in the lawsuit and will be distributed to current and former Battalion and Deputy Fire Chiefs that were denied ...

Osceola County, Florida, and a group of fourteen current and former fire department battalion chiefs have reached a settlement following a 2024 misclassification lawsuit. The battalion chiefs claimed that the county misclassified them as overtime exempt executives in violation of the FLSA. The county countered that the battalion chiefs were “properly classified” and denied all of their claims. However, according ...

A former Aurora, Colorado firefighter has filed a lawsuit in federal court against his former employer seeking overtime pay for unpaid worktime while attending recruit school at the city’s fire academy. Joseph Elias filed the suit on behalf of himself and other similarly situated individuals in the United States District Court for the District of Colorado on January 21, 2025. ...

The Rye Fire Protection District, located in Colorado City, Colorado is facing a lawsuit filed by three of its firefighters. The firefighters claim that the district’s pay practices violate both the FLSA and state law. More specifically, the firefighters make several claims related to the FLSA including the District’s failure to pay overtime due to improper usage of the FLSA’s ...