Firefighters in the City of Gadsden, Alabama recently filed a federal lawsuit alleging the city’s pay practices violate the FLSA. More recently, the same firefighters are now claiming [in an amended complaint filed on August 11, 2022] that the city has unlawfully retaliated against them in violation of both the FLSA and the U.S. Constitution. This story begins in May ...

Four Micanopy Fire and Rescue firefighters have filed a federal lawsuit against their employer alleging violations of the FLSA. According to the town’s website, the Micanopy Fire and Rescue Department responds to over 400 calls per year over an area of fifty-three square miles and serves a population around 10,000 people. The department is staffed by a full time fire ...

The union representing thousands of Philadelphia firefighters (IAFF Local 22) is urging its unvaccinated members to submit overtime requests for department mandated Covid testing. According to The Philadelphia Inquirer, the city and union recently reached an agreement that requires unvaccinated firefighters (approximately 700 of a total 2,300 city firefighters) test themselves weekly and upload those results to a city website ...

A recently retired battalion chief from the Roswell, Georgia Fire Department has filed a federal lawsuit against the City of Roswell alleging the city’s pay practices violate both the FLSA and state laws. Retired Battalion Chief Edwin Vickery filed the lawsuit on July 28, 2022, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia. Here is a breakdown ...

Colorado Governor Jared Polis recently signed an executive order intended to provide state employees that also serve as volunteer firefighters in their communities up to five days of paid leave while fighting wildfires throughout the state. Executive Order D 2022 036 states the following: Climate change is increasing the frequency, severity, and intensity of forest fires in Colorado. Fire season ...

A group of three Mobile, Alabama Police Department K-9 handlers have filed a federal lawsuit alleging the City of Mobile is violating the FLSA by not properly compensating them for all of the time spent caring for their four-legged partners. Wage and hour claims related to “off-the-clock” work activities like this are relatively commonplace in today’s workplace. The FLSA requires ...

Should police officers assigned to a prestigious SWAT unit be paid while on-call awaiting their next activation? That is the question being asked this week in a Jefferson County courthouse in Louisville, Kentucky. A group of 41 current and former Louisville Metro Police Department (Metro) SWAT Team members filed the lawsuit over 5 years ago claiming their employer failed to ...

Today’s FLSA Question: I am a full-time firefighter for a small city fire department. Our state does not recognize collective bargaining for public employees and we are not represented by a union.  Firefighter pay in our city lags behind most of our neighboring departments. As a result, recruitment and retention is a huge issue. The city recently looked to address ...

The City of Bastrop, Louisiana, and a group of current and former city firefighters have finally reached a settlement following almost fifteen years of litigation, special property tax increases, and promises. The story starts back in 2008, when 32 Bastrop firefighters filed a lawsuit alleging the city was not paying them as required by Louisiana law. Louisiana law requires most ...

Today’s FLSA Question: I am a union firefighter for a mid-sized municipal fire department. Our labor contract with the city allows firefighters to receive FLSA comp time instead of FLSA overtime. Despite this option our firefighters have always chosen overtime pay. To my knowledge, the city has never provided any firefighter with comp time. Recently, several firefighters including myself requested ...