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

In the latest round of litigation involving West Virginia firefighters and their entitlement to holiday pay, the City of Parkersburg has been found in violation of West Virginia state law by failing to adequately compensate city firefighters for recognized holidays. The decision, which was issued by Wood Circuit Judge J.D. Beane on December 12, requires the city to start paying ...

A federal court in California has approved a global settlement of almost $150,000 to settle a lawsuit between Alameda County, California, and a former Emergency Medical Services Coordinator (EMS Coordinator). The settlement closely follows a 2021 lawsuit filed by Aram Bronston, an EMS Coordinator that was assigned as the county’s Regional Disaster Medical Health Specialist between November 2018 until his ...

Former Lumpkin County Fire Department Battalion Chief Sharon Booth has filed suit against her former employer alleging that the county misclassified her as an overtime exempt employee in violation of the FLSA. The lawsuit, which was filed on November 30, 2022, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia contains rather straightforward claims of unpaid overtime for ...

Today’s FLSA Question: I work for a municipal fire department. Everybody that works for the city [including the fire department] is paid on a weekly basis. However, firefighters do not receive overtime pay on a weekly basis. The firefighters overtime pay is included in every fourth paycheck. Why do firefighters have to wait? By the way, other city employees don’t ...

The U.S. Forest Service has announced that it is almost completed the monumental task of calculating retroactive FLSA payments to thousands of federal wildland firefighters following pay increases authorized earlier this summer. The pay increases, which drew much national attention earlier this year, mandate federal wildland firefighters earn at least $15 per hour. In total, the federal government allocated $600 ...

Today’s FLSA Question: I am a shift commander for a small combination fire department. Historically, shift commanders received comp time in lieu of overtime pay. However, due to COVID and other staff shortages, myself and the other two shift commanders began earning a great deal of comp time. In fact, it got to a point where we couldn’t even use ...

An interesting story from “across the pond” sheds light on what may at times seem like a local issue for many fire service leaders across the United States. According to Newstalk, an online news service based out of Dublin, Ireland, the Dublin Fire Brigade is suffering from severe understaffing and an unreasonable reliance on firefighter overtime. The Dublin Fire Brigade ...

Humphreys County, Tennessee is the latest public employer to face an FLSA lawsuit filed by its employees. A group of six current and former workers from the county’s sheriff’s office filed the lawsuit on behalf of themselves and other similarly situated individuals in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee on October 31, 2022. The plaintiffs, four ...

Today’s FLSA Question: I am a firefighter in a small full-time unionized fire department. Our most recent three-year collective bargaining agreement provided us with “discretionary” lump-sum annual bonuses in lieu of traditional percentage-based wage increases. In the first year of the contract, we received a $2,000 lump sum payment. In the second and third year of the contract we will ...

Three “former” Battalion Chiefs from the Portage, Indiana Fire Department filed a lawsuit in federal court last week claiming the city of Portage failed to provide them overtime pay as required by both the FLSA and Indiana state law. Additionally, the chiefs’ complaint alleges that the city has unlawfully retaliated against them in violation of the FLSA. Specifically, the chiefs ...