Tag Archives: collective bargaining

Today’s FLSA Question: I am a newly appointed fire chief involved in my first contract negotiations with the city’s firefighter union. Understandably, staffing and overtime are hot button topics. The city’s attorney has proposed capping overtime pay at a preset figure on an annual basis. For example, she proposed capping firefighter overtime at $250,000 annually during the term of the ...

Entry-level firefighters in Raton, New Mexico received an unexpected wage increase earlier this month following an increase the state’s minimum wage. Effective January 1, 2020 the State of New Mexico increased its minimum wage from $7.50 to $9.00 per hour. The City of Raton and its firefighters work under the terms of a collective bargaining agreement that allows the city ...

The City of New York has been ordered to pay a total of 2,519 current and former FDNY EMTs, medics, and Fire Safety Inspectors (EMTs) $14,477,026 in back pay and liquidated damages after being found liable of violating the FLSA. On October 24, 2019 a jury unanimously found the city failed to pay EMTs for time spent working before and ...

The City of Anchorage, AK has settled an ongoing issue with city firefighters related to a mistake-ridden payroll software program that was part of a city-wide computer software upgrade that began in 2011. The city-wide software program initially came with a $10.6 million price tag however, that cost has sky-rocketed to an estimated $81 million over the past 8 years. ...

Three recently retired Gloversville, New York firefighters have filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York claiming the City of Gloversville violated the FLSA. Recent Gloversville Fire Department retirees, James Anderson, Robert Davis, and David Rackmyre allege the city failed to properly administer its FLSA compensatory (comp) time program which resulted in the ...

Today’s FLSA Question: I am the payroll/HR manager for a fire department. Our department offers first aid and CPR classes for residents of the community. We offer the classes a couple of times per year. Firefighters that are certified CPR and first aid instructors teach the classes during off-duty hours. However, since most of the firefighters make different hourly rates, ...

Today’s FLSA Question: I am a paid municipal firefighter for a small fire department. When our firefighters utilize vacation, sick, or personal leave, the city deducts this time from the firefighter’s hours worked for FLSA overtime purposes. However, a neighboring community’s fire department counts all scheduled hours for overtime purposes. Basically, the firefighters in that town receive overtime every payday ...

Today’s FLSA Question: I am the union president of a mid-sized fire department. In our most recent contract negotiations, we were able to secure a small “on-call” stipend for several fire department officers that are required to be on-call. Starting July 1, the fire marshal and safety officer will each receive a weekly stipend for the inconvenience of being on-call. ...

In what is likely to be the first of several legal decisions involving fire department shift commanders and Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) overtime eligibility, eight current and former Vancouver, Washington battalion chiefs (BCs) have lost their bids for FLSA overtime. This litigation began almost two years ago, after a small group of current and former BCs filed a federal ...

Cathedral City, California, is the latest city to face allegations of unpaid overtime from one of its firefighters. Corey Goddard, an engineer/paramedic for the Cathedral City Fire Department, filed a federal lawsuit this week alleging his employer [Cathedral City] failed to include all remuneration in his and other firefighters’ regular rate of pay in violation of the FLSA. In the ...