Tag Archives: DOL

Cayla Jackson, a former dispatcher and jailer for the Prairie County Arkansas Sheriff’s Department has filed a lawsuit against her former employer for multiple violations of both the FLSA and the Arkansas Minimum Wage Act. Jackson further claims that many other county dispatchers and jailers are not receiving overtime or straight time pay as required by both federal and state ...

A group of thirteen Tulsa, Oklahoma firefighters have filed an FLSA lawsuit against the City of Tulsa, the mayor, and the city’s chief operating officer. The thirteen filed the lawsuit on behalf of themselves and other similarly situated employees [i.e., other Tulsa firefighters that will likely join the lawsuit over the next few months] in the U.S. District Court for ...

Today’s FLSA Question: I am the union president for a mid-sized municipal fire department. Our labor agreement allows us to conduct an annual bid. Basically, all shift personnel bid by seniority in rank to a specific platoon (A, B, or C) and piece of apparatus once a year. The only “catch” is that the bid must occur at “no-cost” to ...

Thankfully, this story does not involve a firefighter, fire department or a public safety organization for that matter. However, the facts involved here are too good not to share. The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has filed a lawsuit against the owner of a Georgia auto repair shop for allegedly violating the FLSA after he paid one of his former ...

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit has reversed a lower court ruling that previously dismissed an FLSA overtime lawsuit filed by a North Carolina EMT. Sara Conner, an EMT for Cleveland County, North Carolina Emergency Medical Services filed the lawsuit, on behalf of herself and other similarly situated EMTs, in the U.S. District Court for the Western ...

Today’s FLSA Question: I am a volunteer fire chief for a fully volunteer fire department. Like many volunteer fire departments, we struggle getting trucks on the road during weekday hours. However, we have several volunteer firefighters that are employed by the town in other departments in addition to serving as volunteer firefighters. Recently, a town official proposed allowing these town ...

A group of four former Destin, Florida firefighters filed an FLSA lawsuit earlier this week alleging that their former employer, The Destin Fire Control District [District] failed to pay them for hours spent attending work-related training. Former Destin firefighters David Garner, Brian Ostos, Alejandro Osorio, and Joseph Quinn filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District ...

An FLSA overtime lawsuit filed last fall by a retired deputy fire chief will continue following a recent federal court ruling. Retired First Deputy Fire Chief Gary Mogel filed the lawsuit in September 2020, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. Mogel alleges in his lawsuit that his employer, the City of Reading Pennsylvania, failed to ...

Today’s FLSA Question: I am the fire chief of a full-time paid municipal fire department. Several of our firefighters and officers have been voluntarily attending on-campus classes in several different programs offered through the National Fire Academy (NFA). As a policy, the department provides these members with paid time off (without using vacation time or requiring shift trades) for all ...

Firefighters from Georgetown County, South Carolina are again attempting to raise public awareness regarding the ongoing critical firefighter and paramedic staffing shortage within the county. The Georgetown Professional Firefighters Association, Local 4526, has posted a three-page letter on its Facebook page that provides examples of how the “critical staffing shortage” is impacting the firefighters ability to serve the community. According ...