Tag Archives: FLSA retaliation

In this VLOG, Curt Varone and I discuss several recent changes to DOL policy and opinions following President Biden’s inauguration. These changes are likely the first of many that we will be seeing in the near future. For more on the FLSA and how it applies to firefighters and other first responders, please consider joining us at one of the ...

The City of Tipton, Indiana, its mayor and fire chief are facing an FLSA lawsuit filed by a veteran city firefighter. The suit, filed by twenty (plus) year department veteran Chad Frazier, follows a recent Department of Labor (DOL) Wage and Hour Investigation which ultimately found fifteen city firefighters were shorted almost $100,000 in overtime wages. In the suit, Frazier ...

A Columbiana Ohio, police officer recently filed a rather straight-forward lawsuit containing allegations of unpaid overtime. Patrolman Bryan Granchie, a K-9 officer for the Columbiana Police Department filed the lawsuit, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, alleging the city failed to pay him for hours worked caring for his K-9 work partner “Csuti.” Lawsuits for ...

Lawyers representing the City of Martinsburg, West Virginia recently announced that the city will appeal a state court decision over holiday compensation for the city’s firefighters. In a February 2020 decision, Judge Laura Faircloth found as a matter of law [i.e. absent a trial], that the city’s holiday pay plan for its firefighters violated the West Virginia Wage Payment and ...

The Cobb County Georgia Fire Department is facing a second lawsuit in as many years for allegedly violating the FLSA. David Simister, a fire captain for Cobb County Fire filed this second suit, on behalf of himself and “other similarly situated individuals,” last week in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia. Simister claims the county’s pay ...

Today’s FLSA Question: I was a paramedic for a local fire department. The department has a policy that requires medics brief each other face-to-face at the beginning and end of each 12-hour shift. Medics must fill each other in on the calls that were run, medications used and replaced, account for on-board narcotics, computer, and radio equipment. This process takes ...

A Berkeley County West Virginia Circuit Court judge issued a summary judgement ruling in favor of approximately three dozen current and former Martinsburg, West Virginia firefighters following a 2018 lawsuit over holiday pay. A summary judgement ruling is a judicial decision based on undisputed facts without the need for a full-blown trial. Here, Judge Laura Faircloth found the city liable ...

Hazel “Pepper” Corbin, a civilian office employee for the Arizona City Fire District, has filed a federal lawsuit alleging the district failed to pay her overtime as required by the FLSA and state law. Corbin’s suit, which was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona on December 2, makes rather common wage and hour allegations against ...

Stan Smith, a former Fire Marshal for the City of Sand Springs, Oklahoma Fire Department has agreed to a $247,500 settlement with the city following his 2017 lawsuit over unpaid overtime. Smith filed a rather common straight-forward FLSA lawsuit in September 2017. Smith alleged that he regularly performed work during his unpaid scheduled lunch hour. The FLSA requires employers pay ...

An FLSA retaliation and unpaid overtime lawsuit filed by an Oklahoma fire marshal will continue following a decision last week by Chief Judge John E. Dowdell of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma. Judge Dowdell denied attempts by both the City of Sand Springs, Oklahoma (the defendant) and Fire Marshal Stan Smith (the plaintiff) to end ...