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

Today’s FLSA Question: I am a paid municipal firefighter for a small fire department. When our firefighters utilize vacation, sick, or personal leave, the city deducts this time from the firefighter’s hours worked for FLSA overtime purposes. However, a neighboring community’s fire department counts all scheduled hours for overtime purposes. Basically, the firefighters in that town receive overtime every payday ...

Fifty-eight Morgantown, West Virginia firefighters have filed a lawsuit alleging the City of Morgantown failed to pay overtime as required under West Virginia state law. The crux of the firefighter’s argument stems from a very unique West Virginia statute that requires time-and-one-half pay for firefighters required to work holidays. Here is a portion of that statute: §8-15-10a. Firemen who are ...

Two Battle Creek, Michigan battalion chiefs (BCs) have again lost their claim for FLSA overtime. In a June 3, 2019 decision the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit upheld a lower court’s decision denying Battalion Chiefs Howard Holt and Martin Erskine overtime for time spent on-call after their normal work hours. Battalion chief Howard Holt, who retired in ...

The City of Santa Clara, California is close to settling an FLSA lawsuit filed by five city firefighters back in October of 2018. These five initially alleged the city violated the FLSA by failing to include all remuneration in their regular rate of pay which resulted in firefighters being shorted on both comp time and overtime payments. The firefighters also ...

Today’s FLSA Question: I am the union president of a mid-sized fire department. In our most recent contract negotiations, we were able to secure a small “on-call” stipend for several fire department officers that are required to be on-call. Starting July 1, the fire marshal and safety officer will each receive a weekly stipend for the inconvenience of being on-call. ...

Today’s FLSA Question: I recently read a story on your website about Rhode Island enacting a new law requiring firefighters be paid overtime after working only 42 hours per week. But the FLSA only mandates overtime pay after firefighters work 53 hours per week. Doesn’t federal law (FLSA) trump (or pre-empt) state law? Answer: Good question. You are not alone ...

A Georgia EMT filed a federal lawsuit earlier this month alleging his employer, Meriwether County Fire Rescue (MCFR) failed to pay him—and other similarly situated EMTs—overtime in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). David Barbee filed the lawsuit on May 10, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia. Barbee alleges he worked as an ...

The State of Rhode Island (RI) has enacted historic legislation expanding overtime protection for firefighters working in the state. The new law [well, to be precise, it is actually an elimination of a past exemption and the expansion of an existing statute] mandates overtime pay for local firefighters for all hours worked over an “average” of forty-two hours per week. ...

On April 2, 2019 three San Diego firefighters filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California alleging the City of San Diego violated the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). For more on that story from FirefighterOvertime.org click here. However, in the past five weeks alone, another 250 city firefighters have elected to “opt-in” on this ...

A Wisconsin paramedic has filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin alleging his employer, the Village of Plover, Wisconsin violated the FLSA. Paramedic Joshua Wendorf alleges the village failed to (1) pay him for all hours worked, (2) pay overtime for hours worked over 40 per week, and (3) properly calculate earned FLSA ...