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

A group of fourteen current and former battalion chiefs from the Osceola County Fire Rescue and EMS Department have filed a lawsuit alleging the county improperly classified them as overtime exempt executive and administrative employees in violation of the FLSA. Whether any employee can be classified as an overtime exempt executive or administrative employee depends on the specific facts involved. ...

The City of Carbondale, Pennsylvania’s City Council voted to privatize its paid firefighting force by a 5-2 vote late last week. The Carbondale Fire Department is a combination department operating with a small number of paid firefighters augmented by volunteers. According to ABC News Channel 16 [WNEP] the department’s paid staff has dwindled to only four firefighters. As a result, ...

The labor dispute between the union representing firefighters and Boeing took a drastic turn this past weekend when Boeing locked out 125 private firefighters that work at the corporation’s Renton and Everett, Washington manufacturing facilities. The heart of the dispute centers on the firefighter’s wages. According to Boeing the average annual salary for a firefighter is around $91,000. The firefighters ...

An emergency medical technician (EMT) employed by the Clark County Illinois Ambulance Department filed a lawsuit in federal court alleging the county’s on-call requirements for its EMTs violates both the FLSA and IL state law. The suit, which was filed by a lone EMT in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois late last month contains allegations ...

Should firefighters be paid the same as police officers? That is the question being asked in Mobile, Alabama following a 2022 lawsuit filed by members of Mobile Fire and Rescue Department. The lawsuit alleges the city violated an Alabama state law that requires police officers and firefighters be paid the same. Pay parity between police and fire is not a ...

Today’s FLSA Question: I work as a full-time fire lieutenant for a combination fire department. Our full-time firefighters and officers work a 24/48 schedule. We also have a small group of volunteer firefighters that assist at larger incidents. I am on my department’s grant committee. The committee consists of myself, the Fire Marshal, and the Assistant Chief. I am the ...

The State if Illinois has announced a state-wide tax rebate for active volunteer firefighters. The “Volunteer Emergency Worker Credit” will cut $500 from a volunteer firefighter’s 2023 income provided they meet certain criteria. The credit requires that the volunteer firefighters have served their respective organizations for at least nine months and earned less than $5,000 [in nominal fees] over the ...

Vermont Senator and former presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has introduced legislation in the United States Senate that would alter the FLSA’s current overtime threshold from 40 hours per week to 32 hours per week over a four-year period. The proposed legislation also requires overtime compensation for all hours worked between eight and twelve in a single day and double time ...

Can the terms and conditions of a collective bargaining agreement (CBA) supersede the FLSA’s basic overtime requirements? That was one of several questions answered recently by a federal judge in Illinois. District Court Judge J. Phil Gilbert ruled that an FLSA lawsuit filed by a group of 911 dispatchers that work for the St. Clair County Emergency Management Association can ...

One chapter in the City of New York’s seemingly never-ending  wage and hour litigation with city EMS workers might be coming to a close very soon. The city and a group of more than 500 FDNY Emergency Medical Services supervisors have agreed to settle a 2016 lawsuit for unpaid work hours. This was one of two separate lawsuits filed in ...