Tag Archives: employees engaged in fire protection activities

Hundreds of Los Angeles City Firefighter/Medics File FLSA Lawsuit Against the City

Over 400 current and former Los Angeles City Fire Department firefighter/medics have filed a federal lawsuit against the city alleging violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The lawsuit, which was filed in the United States District Court for the Central District of California earlier this summer contains allegations that the city misclassified hundreds of firefighter/medics as employees engaged ...

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Colorado City Facing FLSA Lawsuit from Fire Department EMTs

The City of Grand Junction, Colorado is facing an FLSA lawsuit from three fire department EMTs. The lawsuit, which was filed late last month in the United States District Court for the District of Colorado contains allegations that the city failed to pay the EMTs overtime after working 40 hours every 7-day workweek. The EMTs allege the city misclassified them ...

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Waiting Four Weeks for Overtime

Today’s FLSA Question: I work for a municipal fire department. Everybody that works for the city [including the fire department] is paid on a weekly basis. However, firefighters do not receive overtime pay on a weekly basis. The firefighters overtime pay is included in every fourth paycheck. Why do firefighters have to wait? By the way, other city employees don’t ...

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TN County Sheriffs File FLSA Lawsuit for Regular Rate Violations and Unpaid Overtime Following Change in Work and Pay Periods

Humphreys County, Tennessee is the latest public employer to face an FLSA lawsuit filed by its employees. A group of six current and former workers from the county’s sheriff’s office filed the lawsuit on behalf of themselves and other similarly situated individuals in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee on October 31, 2022. The plaintiffs, four ...

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Lockheed Martin Corp. Facing FLSA Lawsuit from Firefighters

A group of four in-house firefighters that work for Lockheed Martin Corp.’s aircraft plant in Marietta, Georgia recently filed a lawsuit against the corporation alleging the company fails to pay overtime as required by federal law. The lawsuit, which was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia on April 6, contains allegations that the defense ...

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8th Circuit Denies Kansas City Medics OT Claims

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit has found that the City of Kansas City, MO did not violate the FLSA when it adopted a new pay plan for fire department medics and classified existing Fire Medics as employees engaged in fire protection activities (a.k.a. §207(k) firefighters). The lawsuit was filed in 2017 by two different groups of ...

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Cobb County Settles FLSA Suit with Fire Captain

Fire Captain David Simister and Cobb County, Georgia have agreed to a $30,000 settlement to end a lawsuit Simister filed in August 2020. Simister’s lawsuit, which was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia on August 13, 2020, contained allegations the county failed to pay overtime as required by the FLSA and that the county ...

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Maryland Fire Investigators and County Settle FLSA Lawsuit

A group of fire investigators from the Prince George’s County Fire Department have settled an overtime lawsuit they filed last summer. The lawsuit, which was filed in federal court on June 18, 2020, on behalf of fourteen county fire investigators, alleged the county’s pay practices violated the FLSA. Specifically, the investigators claimed the county improperly classified them as §207(k) firefighters. ...

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The FLSA’s §207(k) Exemption May Not Be an Option for Some Fire Departments

Today’s FLSA Question: I am a full-time paid fire chief for a private non-profit volunteer fire company. Over the past twenty-five years our organization has grown and required the hiring of several daytime staff personnel (training chief, fire marshal, assistant chief) to augment our core of volunteer and paid-on-call firefighters. But we are now in the process of hiring our ...

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