Tag Archives: fire chief

Today’s FLSA Question: I am the fire chief for mid-sized full-time fire department. Our fire prevention / investigation division has two full-time personnel that take turns being on-call after hours and weekends. Both of these personnel have take-home vehicles and respond after-hours to any confirmed structure fires or any suspicious fires. They divide on-call time between the two assigned personnel, ...

A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by a lone Los Angeles firefighter, on behalf of himself and “other similarly situated individuals” [a.k.a. other firefighters] for unpaid overtime while attending the county’s fire academy during the COVID-19 pandemic. The lawsuit, which was initially filed in state court only to be moved to federal court in July 2021, contained allegations ...

The Upper Captiva Fire Protection and Rescue Service District (district) is facing its second FLSA misclassification lawsuit from a former chief officer since 2021. The district provides fire and EMS services on the tiny island of North Captiva on Florida’s gulf coast. The island of North Captiva is located a few miles northwest of Ft. Meyers Beach and is only ...

Today’s FLSA Question: I recently read a news story about a fire chief that retired and received compensation for 93 comp time days in addition to his unused vacation and sick time. My question is specifically about the comp time buy-out. Assuming that each “day” equaled 8 hours of comp time, that equates to 744 hours of comp time. My ...

The City of Tulsa, Oklahoma is one step closer to resolving an FLSA lawsuit filed by nearly 500 Tulsa firefighters. This past Wednesday, the Tulsa City Council approved a settlement in the amount of $1,060,000. The firefighter’s complaint, which was filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma in February 2022, contained several allegations related ...

The City of Selma, Alabama has reached an undisclosed “confidential” settlement with three fire department assistant fire marshals/fire investigators following their 2021 lawsuit for unpaid overtime, breach of contract, and FLSA retaliation. The plaintiffs’ complaint set forth three basic allegations. First, the plaintiffs claim the city misclassified them as overtime exempt employees in violation of the FLSA. Second, the city ...

Today’s FLSA Question: I am a firefighter in a small full-time unionized fire department. Our most recent three-year collective bargaining agreement provided us with “discretionary” lump-sum annual bonuses in lieu of traditional percentage-based wage increases. In the first year of the contract, we received a $2,000 lump sum payment. In the second and third year of the contract we will ...

For the second year in a row, Florida firefighters, paramedics, and law enforcement officers will receive $1,000 bonus checks from the state. The program, which is intended to reward the work of first responders state-wide, allocates $125 million to the program. In total over 100,000 first responders will receive checks. Gov. DeSantis hand-delivered some of the checks to Jacksonville Fire ...

Today’s FLSA Question: I am a paid firefighter in a small full-time fire department. My department has one station and a total of 7 firefighters on-duty per shift. We work 24-hour shifts that start at 7 am. We rotate ride positions between two engines and an EMS unit. Our department’s policy requires that all personnel report to the shift captain ...

The City of Encinitas, California is the latest city to face an FLSA overtime lawsuit from a fire department battalion chief. The lawsuit, which was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California on April 8, alleges the city misclassifies battalion chiefs as overtime exempt employees in violation of the FLSA. As of now, the lawsuit ...