Tag Archives: EAP Exemptions

The City of Eaton, Ohio has settled a lawsuit filed by four current and former fire department employees for a total of $185,000. The lawsuit, which was filed in 2019 by four of the department’s five full-time employees, contained two basic allegations. The first allegation was that the city misclassified the four full-time fire department employees as overtime exempt executive ...

Seventeen Fire Captains from Marion County Fire and Rescue (MCFR), in Marion County, Florida have reached a settlement with the county following a 2019 lawsuit alleging they were misclassified as overtime exempt executives. The settlement, which still must be approved by the court, requires the county to pay a total of $725,000 to the captains and their attorneys. The settlement ...

The City of Lawrence, Kansas has voluntarily agreed to pay $998,600 to 24 police sergeants, 21 fire captains, and 3 other city employees following a recent FLSA review. The review, which was requested by a group of fire captains in 2019, found that the city improperly classified numerous city employees as overtime exempt. As a result of the city’s misclassification ...

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 Newton County Fire Department has reached a settlement with three battalion chiefs (BCs) following a 2019 lawsuit over FLSA overtime. The three BCs filed the suit in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia in November 2019. The three alleged the county improperly reclassified BCs from overtime eligible first responders to overtime exempt employees in July 2018. ...

Today’s FLSA Question: I am the Fire Marshal for a mid-sized fire department. The town considers my position overtime exempt. I have been pressing town hall for an explanation of why my position is classified this way. The HR Director initially told me I was an overtime exempt executive employee. However, I informed him that exempt executives must supervise other ...

Firefighters, Overtime, and the Fair Labor Standards Act is the title of an article appearing in this month’s Firehouse Magazine. The article was written by my friend and colleague Curt Varone. The article is based on Curt’s Fire Litigation Database and delves into the top five reasons fire departments are getting sued under the FLSA. In the following podcast, Curt ...

Retired Division Chief Ronald Pelham has reached a $115,000 court approved settlement with the City of Monrovia, California following an FLSA lawsuit. Pelham alleged, in his September 2018 complaint that the Monrovia Fire Department misclassified him as an overtime exempt executive employee and failed to pay him any FLSA overtime. Pelham’s lawsuit was one of several filed across the country ...

In the latest legal twist involving battalion chiefs (shift commanders) and FLSA overtime eligibility, United States Magistrate Judge Lawrence R. Leonard has dismissed an overtime lawsuit filed by seven Chesapeake, Virginia Battalion Chiefs (BCs). The seven BCs filed the suit last July, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern Division of Virginia, alleging the City of Chesapeake failed to ...