A group of 16 EMTs have filed suit in federal court alleging that the City of Fredericksburg, Virginia has misclassified them as “employees engaged in fire protection activities” (a.k.a. §207(k) firefighters). According to the EMTs’ complaint, the city fails to pay them overtime after working more than 40 hours in a 7-day workweek. Quoting from the complaint: From the time ...
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LA City and Firefighters Poised to Settle FLSA Lawsuit for $9.5 Million
The City of Los Angeles and a class of more than 1,100 plaintiff firefighters have agreed to settle a 2023 lawsuit over unpaid work hours. The lawsuit, which was initially filed by three firefighters in federal court in February 2023, contained allegations that city firefighters were frequently being required to work beyond their 24-hour shift without compensation. Quoting from the ...
Read More »Milwaukee Hit with FLSA Lawsuit for Off the Clock Work and Retaliation Related to Unpaid Study Time and Homework from a Former 911 Dispatcher
A former 911 telecommunicator/dispatcher for the City of Milwaukee, Wisconsin is suing her former employer alleging the city’s pay practices for probationary dispatchers violates the FLSA and that the city improperly retaliated against her when she complained. Christina Harris’s attorneys filed the suit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin late last month. According to the ...
Read More »CA Firefighters File FLSA Lawsuit Over Regular Rate Calculations
More than three dozen firefighters have filed an FLSA lawsuit against their employer, the City of Haywood, California alleging that the city improperly calculated their regular rate of pay in violation of the FLSA. The lawsuit was filed by thirty-seven named plaintiffs and other “similarly situated individuals.” This likely means that additional current and former firefighters will join in on ...
Read More »Bartlesville Oklahoma Looking to Settle FLSA Lawsuit with City Firefighters
The Bartlesville, Oklahoma City Council is poised to approve a settlement offer intended to resolve a lawsuit filed in federal court last week by 75 current and former city firefighters. The firefighters’ complaint contains allegations that the city violated the FLSA by failing to include “various stipends” in their regular rate of pay. According to the complaint, these stipends include: ...
Read More »Second FLSA Lawsuit in a Week for West Virginia Firefighters
Two similar FLSA lawsuits have been filed by firefighters from two different West Virginia cities in the past week. The first, which my friend and colleague Curt Varone covered on his Fire Law Blog last Wednesday, contained allegations that the City of Clarksburg was improperly calculating its firefighter’s regular rate of pay in violation of the FLSA. [You can find ...
Read More »Court Orders Enforcement of FLSA Settlement Despite Objection by Firefighters’ Attorneys
What began as a typical lawsuit over breach of contract and the inclusion of longevity in a couple dozen Mississippi firefighter’s regular rate of pay in late 2022, ended in a rather unusual court ruling this past week. A federal magistrate Judge has ordered the enforcement of a settlement agreement negotiated between the City of Biloxi, Mississippi and thirty-five city ...
Read More »Lockheed Martin Settles 2022 FLSA Lawsuit with Firefighters for Close to $1 Million
Lockheed Martin [a global aerospace and defense contractor] has settled a 2022 FLSA lawsuit filed by a group of forty-nine industrial firefighters for a total of $949,996. The crux of the firefighter’s claims was that Lockheed Martin only paid its in-house firefighters’ overtime after they worked more than 48 hours per week. The FLSA requires non-public agency fire departments, pay ...
Read More »FDNY Facing Another FLSA Suit from Medics and EMTs
A large group of FDNY emergency medical technicians and paramedics filed a federal lawsuit late last week alleging that the City of New York’s pay practices violate the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The lawsuit, which contains several claims including uncompensated off-the clock work, regular rate violations, and failure to timely pay overtime compensation was filed in the U.S. District ...
Read More »More than 500 LA City Fire Department Employees File FLSA Lawsuit
A group of more than 500 Los Angeles firefighters, captains, engineers, fire inspectors, and pilots filed have filed a class action lawsuit alleging that the city fails to include longevity pay, wellness bonuses, retirement incentive pay, special duty pay, platoon duty pay, and educational bonuses in their regular rate of pay in violation of the FLSA. The FLSA requires “all ...
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