Firefighter Overtime Discussing Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) for Firefighters, First Responders as well as Human Resource & Finance Professional

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 ...

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit has upheld a lower court’s finding that in order to utilize the FLSA’s §207(k) partial overtime exemption, a fire department must establish a qualifying work period. This story began back in January 2020 when former Highland Hills, Ohio firefighter David Vance filed an FLSA lawsuit against his former employer. Vance’s allegations ...

A United States Magistrate Judge has ruled in the favor of more than 450 Kansas City, Missouri firefighters following their FLSA lawsuit against the city. In a 2019 lawsuit, Kansas City firefighters claimed the city failed to include a wide range of wage augments in their overtime rate of pay. The FLSA requires “all remuneration for employment paid to, or ...

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 ...

Officials from Escambia County, Florida, and the county’s firefighter’s union have agreed to a new three-year collective bargaining agreement that includes a department-wide wage adjustment for all county firefighters. The new contract requires firefighters receive pay raises ranging from two to twenty percent. According to the president of the Escambia Professional Firefighters Association, Lt. Nick Gradia, Escambia’s pay scales had ...

The City of New York is once again facing an FLSA lawsuit filed by FDNY Emergency Medical Services (EMS) workers. In a 15-page complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on September 16, 2021, three named plaintiffs claim the City of New York is systematically underpaying its EMS workers. Specifically, the complaint alleges ...

The long running legal battle between the City of Morgantown, West Virginia and its firefighters over holiday pay does not appear to be coming to an end anytime soon. This past week city firefighters filed an amended complaint in state court claiming the city owes firefighters almost $6.5 million after years of improperly calculating their holiday pay. The firefighters had ...

The City of Columbia, South Carolina has announced a new hazard pay and bonus program for city workers. The plan, which has been approved by the city council will provide firefighters, police officers, public works, and other “front-line workers” with a $2,500 one-time stipend for working through the pandemic. Other city workers will receive a $1,250 one-time stipend. Additionally, city ...

Firefighters substituting for each other’s work shifts is common in today’s fire service. Most fire departments allow firefighters, and in some instances, other departmental employees the ability to freely substitute work shifts with each other. There are several reasons why so many fire departments allow personnel to substitute for each other. First and foremost is monetary. The FLSA and Department ...