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

The City of Santa Clara, California has settled an FLSA lawsuit by agreeing to pay more than 650 current and former city employees a total of $2.7 million. While the terms of the settlement require the city to make payments to over 650 potential plaintiffs, the vast majority of which are non-firefighters, we will focus on how the settlement applies ...

Three recently retired Gloversville, New York firefighters have filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York claiming the City of Gloversville violated the FLSA. Recent Gloversville Fire Department retirees, James Anderson, Robert Davis, and David Rackmyre allege the city failed to properly administer its FLSA compensatory (comp) time program which resulted in the ...

The crux of the plaintiff’s complaint involved alleged FLSA regular rate violations. In particular, the city’s failure to include certain wage augments in the plaintiffs’ regular rate. The FLSA requires virtually all the money an employee is paid included in his or her regular rate. Proper calculation of the regular rate is critical since all FLSA overtime must be paid at a rate of at least time-and-one-half of the employee’s regular rate. Very often employers utilize an employee’s base hourly rate to calculate the overtime rate of pay. However, the FLSA requires that all remuneration be included in the regular rate of pay.

Specifically, the plaintiffs made two basic claims:

• First, the city failed to include money paid directly to employees in lieu of receiving employer sponsored medical benefits in the regular rate.
• Second, the plaintiffs also wanted holiday pay included in their regular rate.

Today’s FLSA Question: I am a union president for a mid-sized municipal fire department. We have several firefighters recovering from various long-term work-related injuries. The city requires injured firefighters return to work in a light-duty capacity as soon as possible. Historically, the firefighters worked five eight-hour days per week while on light duty. Between doctor’s appointments and therapy, light-duty firefighters ...

A group of sixteen fire captains from the Marion County Fire and Rescue Department (MCFRD) filed a federal lawsuit last week claiming the county has violated the FLSA. In a complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, on September 18, 2019, the captains made two basic claims:

Today’s FLSA Question: I am a city HR manager and recently attended one of the FLSA for Fire Departments seminars. We have a new city manager that is looking to curb overtime costs within our fire department. Specifically, he wants to dock firefighters pay for the time spent eating meals. I know the FLSA allows for this practice, however how ...

A lawsuit initially filed by only four Flagstaff, Arizona firefighters last September has ended with a court approved settlement between the city and a total of thirty-one firefighters. The firefighters alleged the city failed to include all remuneration in some firefighter’s regular rate of pay. In particular, the firefighters claimed the city failed to include certain “premium payments” paid to ...

Today’s FLSA Question: Is a fire department required to pay firefighters for time spent off-duty attending mandatory paramedic training? Answer: As a general rule all mandatory job-related training is compensable. One would think that mandatory paramedic training would fall within this category of compensable training. However, as most regular readers of FirefighterOvertime.org are likely aware the FLSA and Department of ...

Cook County, Illinois is the latest employer dealing with an overtime lawsuit filed by county workers. Three Regional Coordinators for Cook County Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management (DHSEM) filed a lawsuit on August 21, 2019 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois seeking unpaid overtime. Regional Coordinators Christopher Bruce, John David Daniel, and Brian ...

A lawsuit initially filed by only two Wisconsin paramedics in June 2018 has resulted in a settlement. The defendants in the suit—the Great Divide Ambulance Company and four different Wisconsin Townships—have agreed to pay twelve EMTs and medics a total of $255,000 to settle all overtime claims related to the suit. For more on the initial lawsuit: Wisconsin Medics Claim ...