Tag Archives: DOL

The Department of Labor (DOL) will be implementing several important updates to regulations related to the FLSA over the next few weeks. These updates include an increase in the minimum salary required for overtime exempt “white-collar” employees and critical changes to DOL regulations related to the regular rate of pay. It would be nearly impossible to properly address these changes ...

Rainbow City, AL has paid twenty-two city firefighters a total of $22,846.88 following a Department of Labor Wage and Hour investigation. The investigation looked at the way city firefighters were paid from August 2017 to August 2019. The investigation revealed the city failed to pay firefighters overtime and maintain records as required by the FLSA. Specifically, the city agreed to ...

The City of Providence, RI has settled a 2013 FLSA lawsuit filed by city police officers for more than $1.7 million dollars. According to the Providence Journal, the terms of the settlement require the city to pay $1.5 million to more than 400 current and former officers and an additional $223,000 to the officers’ attorneys. The city has yet to ...

Does your state participate in Daylight Savings Time? Most likely, you answered yes to this question. Now, in addition to changing the batteries on smoke and CO detectors, did you pay your firefighters correctly? Since it is getting to be that time of year again, here is a post from FirefighterOvertime.org dating back to December of 2017 that is just ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

Retired Division Chief Ronald Pelham has reached a $115,000 court approved settlement with the City of Monrovia, California following an FLSA lawsuit. Pelham alleged, in his September 2018 complaint that the Monrovia Fire Department misclassified him as an overtime exempt executive employee and failed to pay him any FLSA overtime. Pelham’s lawsuit was one of several filed across the country ...

In the latest legal twist involving battalion chiefs (shift commanders) and FLSA overtime eligibility, United States Magistrate Judge Lawrence R. Leonard has dismissed an overtime lawsuit filed by seven Chesapeake, Virginia Battalion Chiefs (BCs). The seven BCs filed the suit last July, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern Division of Virginia, alleging the City of Chesapeake failed to ...