Tag Archives: Fair Labor Standards Act

Today’s FLSA Question: My department provides all firefighters and officers [except for staff personnel assigned to 40-hour workweeks] 13 floating Kelly Days per year. In exchange for these Kelly Days, we do not receive any FLSA overtime for our scheduled work shifts. In the past, the department allowed two firefighters to use their floating Kelly Day on any given shift. ...

A federal judge has dismissed a former Salina, Kansas fire captain’s allegations of FLSA retaliation following his 2022 lawsuit against the city and the former fire chief. The lawsuit, which contains allegations of both state and federal law violations was initially filed in state court in early 2022. The city removed the action to federal court in April 2022, due ...

Today’s FLSA Question: I recently read a news story about a fire chief that retired and received compensation for 93 comp time days in addition to his unused vacation and sick time. My question is specifically about the comp time buy-out. Assuming that each “day” equaled 8 hours of comp time, that equates to 744 hours of comp time. My ...

The City of Tulsa, Oklahoma is one step closer to resolving an FLSA lawsuit filed by nearly 500 Tulsa firefighters. This past Wednesday, the Tulsa City Council approved a settlement in the amount of $1,060,000. The firefighter’s complaint, which was filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma in February 2022, contained several allegations related ...

Full-time firefighters in Opelousas, LA make $9.50 per hour. Not surprisingly, the department is having trouble recruiting and retaining firefighters. According to firefighters, the city’s fire station even closes “every now and then” due to staffing shortages. Firefighters that normally work 24 hours on-duty followed by 48 hours off are working multiple continuous days and overtime shifts have become the ...

Today’s FLSA Question: Can the terms of a negotiated agreement between a union and an employer [i.e., collective bargaining agreement, memorandum of understanding, etc.] supersede the FLSA’s overtime requirements? Answer: No, a negotiated agreement between a union and an employer will not supersede the FLSA’s overtime requirements. This is a relatively common misconception when it comes to the impact of ...

Today’s FLSA Question: I am a full-time paid firefighter in a small rural combination fire department. We have 12 full-time firefighters and another dozen active volunteers. Our department has strict rules that forbid our paid firefighters volunteering their time for the department. Recently, the department began allowing the volunteer firefighters the opportunity to pick up “per diem” shifts. The volunteers ...

Congressman Gerry Connolly, a democrat from Virginia introduced legislation this past week aimed at improving pension benefits and working conditions for thousands of federal firefighters. The legislation, which is called the Federal Firefighter Pay Equity Act, contains two basic requirements. First, it requires the federal government to include overtime wages received by federal firefighters for working their normally prescribed work ...

Today’s FLSA Question: I work for a third-party EMS agency that contracts 911 service for a rural county. Our agency is struggling to find medics and EMTs. As a result, overtime and mandatory overtime has turned into the norm. In an effort to incentivize employees to take additional shifts, my company has begun offering a bonus in addition to overtime ...

My friend and colleague Curt Varone recently posted a story on his Fire Law Blog entitled, “Part-Time Fire Chiefs and Compensation.” The post answered a burning question that Curt received on whether part-time fire chiefs can be classified as overtime exempt executive employees. Curt did a great job answering that question and providing some alternative options for compensating part-time fire ...