Tag Archives: Emergency Medical Technicians

Last week a federal judge approved an almost $3 million settlement between Air Evac EMS, Inc., a global company that operates more than 140 air ambulance helicopters in 15 states across the country, and over 400 current and former flight nurses, medics, and pilots. The settlement follows a 2018 lawsuit containing allegations of unpaid overtime. Jason Peck, a former flight ...

Two Storey County, Nevada firefighters have filed an FLSA suit against their employer, the Storey County Fire Protection District. The pair claim the district fails to pay them, and other similarly situated firefighters, overtime as required by the FLSA. Specifically, firefighters Victor Yohey and Chris Tillisch allege the district has a practice of not paying firefighters any FLSA overtime for ...

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 ...

Gary Perry, a paramedic for Montgomery County Emergency Medical Services, has filed a federal lawsuit alleging the county fails to pay him and other similarly situated medics overtime as required by the FLSA. According to Perry’s complaint—which was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee on October 28—the county does not provide Perry and other ...

A lawsuit initially filed by only two Wisconsin paramedics in June 2018 has resulted in a settlement. The defendants in the suit—the Great Divide Ambulance Company and four different Wisconsin Townships—have agreed to pay twelve EMTs and medics a total of $255,000 to settle all overtime claims related to the suit. For more on the initial lawsuit: Wisconsin Medics Claim ...

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 the fire chief of a full-time paid fire department with seven stations. Firefighters bid by seniority to a preferred station. We utilize an out-of-rank system to fill most vacancies within the officer ranks. This out-of-rank system requires senior firefighters to move up and cover vacant officer positions. This can result in firefighters being required to ...

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 ...

Today’s FLSA Question: I am a non-firefighting paramedic and a union representative in an urban city. The city allows firefighters to freely substitute with each other for their assigned shifts. We would like to receive the same opportunities as firefighters regarding substitutions. Unfortunately, the city’s HR director believes the FLSA limits shift substitutions to firefighters and police officers. As a ...